Mehmet Bayındır, a graduate student in the Department of Physics, is this year’s winner of the Optical Society of America's New Focus Award. This award was given to Mehmet Bayındır at the Optical Society of America’s Annual Meeting in Long Beach California, during October 13-16, 2001.
   Mehmet Bayındır’s research concentrates on photonic crystals, and he has published more than 20 Science Citation Index papers in the past 5 years. His advisor, Prof. Ekmel Özbay, said that, “This is a well-deserved award for Mehmet who worked very hard and made significant contributions to this area of research. I also see this as proof of the quality of our graduate programs here at Bilkent University.”
   The OSA New Focus Student Award was established in 1997 to encourage innovative research and leadership in the optics community among OSA student members. The award consists of a certificate, and $2500.