Dunedin, FL--Miniature photonics maker Ocean Optics has named Nathan J. Withers the winner of the SPIE 2012 Young Investigator Award, which the company sponsors.

The Young Investigator Award is presented to a researcher who is no more than five years out of school and submits the best juried paper as part of the Colloidal Nanocrystals for Biomedical Applications VII conference. The award was presented during the session on January 23 at Photonics West. The honor includes a $1,000 investigator gift and a company grant to the investigator’s advisor.

As part of a research team at the University of New Mexico that included Yekaterina Brandt, Antonio C. Rivera, Nathaniel C. Cook, Leisha M. Armijo, and Marek Osinski, Withers was the lead author of the paper “Effects of LaF3:Ce nanoparticles capped with polyethylene glycol on human astrocytoma in vitro.” The team investigated the cytotoxicity of cerium-doped lanthanum fluoride colloidal nanocrystals used to improve absorption in radiation therapy.

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