Mohammad Taghinejad has been awarded a 2020 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for his potential contributions to the field of optics, photonics or related field. 

Taghinejad is a Ph.D. candidate at the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). Under the supervision of ECE Professor Wenshan Cai, he is studying the optically excited states of various materials such as metals, semiconductors, and conductive oxides to develop ultrafast optical switches and light modulators. His goal is to bridge the gap between state-of-the-art electronics and ultrafast optics to introduce practical methodologies for high-speed and low-energy hybrid electro-optical data processing units. Taghinejad is the recipient of the 2020 ECE Graduate Research Assistant Excellence Award from the School of ECE at Georgia Tech. 

In 2020, the Society is awarding $298,000 in education scholarships to 78 outstanding SPIE student members, based on their potential contribution to optics and photonics or to a related discipline. Award-winning applicants were evaluated, selected, and approved by the SPIE Scholarship Committee, chaired by SPIE volunteer Kate Medicus. Through 2019, SPIE has distributed over $6 million dollars in individual scholarships. This ambitious effort reflects the Society's commitment to education and to the next generation of optical scientists and engineers around the world. 

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering, and technology. The Society serves more than 255,000 constituents from 183 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2019, SPIE provided more than $5.6 million in community support, including scholarships and awards, outreach and advocacy programs, travel grants, public policy, and educational resources.