SPIE Announces 2027 Prism Awards Finalists for Best Photonics Products

BELLINGHAM, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 4, 2026--

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, has announced finalists in the seven categories for the 2027 Prism Awards, which recognize remarkable new photonics products on the market. Winners will be announced during the awards ceremony at SPIE Photonics West on 3 February 2027 in San Francisco, California.

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During the Prism Awards, SPIE will also announce the winner of the SPIE Catalyst Award, honoring a for-profit company with social or environmental programs that have made significant advances in workplace opportunity, community engagement, or environmental progress. Finalists for this year’s Catalyst Award, now in its fourth year, are Lumentum for Together@Lumentum and Red Pitaya for Open Quantum Lab.

"Seeing the finalists for the Prism and Catalyst Awards is always exciting because it highlights the variety of innovation happening in the optics and photonics industry," said SPIE CEO Kent Rochford. "It takes tremendous effort to develop a product and bring it to market, and I extend my congratulations to the 2027 finalists, as well as everyone who applied this year. Their work is improving lives around the world. I look forward to recognizing the winners at the ceremony during SPIE Photonics West in February."

Highlighting the array of evolving technologies in areas such as biophotonic instruments, lasers, quantum tech, and sensors, the 2027 Prism Awards finalists are:

Biophotonic Instruments

Cameras and Imaging Systems

Lasers

Optical Materials and Components

Quantum Tech

Sensors

Test and Measurement

Visit SPIE Prism Awards for more information, including product eligibility and past winners.

About SPIE

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, brings engineers, scientists, students, and business professionals together to advance light-based science and technology. The Society, founded in 1955, connects and engages with our global constituency through industry-leading conferences and exhibitions; publications of conference proceedings, books, and journals in the SPIE Digital Library; and career-building opportunities. Over the past five years, we have invested more than $26 million in the international optics community through our advocacy and support, including scholarships, educational resources, travel grants, endowed gifts, and public-policy development.

SPIE has announced the finalists for the 2027 SPIE Prism Awards, which recognize optics and photonics innovations. Recipients will be announced at the awards ceremony on 3 February 2027 at SPIE Photonics West.

Dolly Parton ’s longtime manager moved Thursday to drop a complaint that accused the late singer’s nephew who acted as her head of security with threatening her estate and its employees.

The manager, Danny Nozell, who runs She’s Alive, an entity founded to manage and protect Parton’s estate, had secured a temporary restraining order against Bryan Seaver and his security company, Squadron Augmented Protection Services, in September. Nozell was seeking to turn the order into a permanent injunction against Seaver.

A very brief filing in a Tennessee court Thursday gives no reason why the complaint is being withdrawn.

It says only that a proposed order was being drafted for the judge’s approval to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled again. A court filing from a day earlier said the two sides had reached an agreement, but that gave no details either.

The first public hearing on the matter, pushed several times over the course of a month, was slated for Tuesday.

The Associated Press sent emails seeking comment from lawyers for She’s Alive, Seaver and his company.

The case exposed a serious rift in Parton's inner circle that spilled into public view in the weeks after her Aug. 25 death.

She’s Alive terminated Seaver and SAPS in early September, and the following week petitioned for the restraining order against him, arguing that his “terrorizing conduct made their continued retention untenable.”

The petition said that starting shortly before Parton’s death and continuing after, Seaver made threats and aimed them directly at She’s Alive’s “personnel, counsel, and business partners. In writing, he vowed to ‘destroy the entire brand.'”

It says he “called himself ‘literally an international arms dealer and mercenary,’” and said everyone “needs to be worried about what I might do.”

In granting the temporary order, Chancellor I’Ashea L. Myles cited Seaver’s “claimed access to weapons, experience with violence, and intention to retaliate.”

Seaver said in court filings that he considered Nozell a close friend and ally before Nozell took out the restraining order.

In an affidavit, Seaver said text messages Nozell cited as evidence of his threats were a “private conversation between two friends who were both frustrated, grieving and discussing strategy.”

“I have never threatened physical harm to Mr. Nozell, to any SAL employee, contractor, attorney, advisor, or business partner, or to anyone else associated with SAL,” Seaver said. “I have no intention of doing so.”

FILE - Dolly Parton poses at the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy Ceremony in New York, on Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki, File)