Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship: 2025 Awardee
Chuan Luo
Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona
The 2025 winner of the Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship award is Chuan Luo. During his master’s studies at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences, Chuan Luo focused on advancing optical system design for LiDAR and augmented reality (AR) applications. His early research addressed key limitations in conventional MEMS-based beam steering systems for LiDAR—specifically, the trade-offs between scanning speed, angular range, and device size. To overcome these challenges, Chuan and his teammates developed a novel beam steering approach using a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD). By synchronizing a pulsed laser with the DMD’s micromirror transition states, he transformed the DMD into a dynamic diffraction grating, enabling high-resolution, wide-angle beam steering from a compact and low-cost platform. This work demonstrated a promising path toward miniaturized, high-performance LiDAR systems.
The 2025 Kidger Scholarship Award was presented to Chuan at SPIE Optics + Photonics 2025, San Diego, California, on 6 August 2025.
Research Highlights
Professor Simon Thibault, University of Laval, Quebec City
presents the Kidger Scholarship award to Chuan Luo
SPIE Optics + Photonics, San Diego, CA, August 6, 2025
Chuan Luo is an incoming third-year Ph.D. candidate in Optical Sciences at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, where he previously earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2018 and 2020, respectively. His master’s research, conducted under the supervision of Professor Yuzuru Takashima, focused on leveraging optical design to modulate Digital Micromirror Devices (DMDs) in both spatial and angular domains for applications in LiDAR and augmented reality (AR) displays. Following his master’s degree, Chuan spent three years in industry as an Optical Engineer, working on the development and incubation of diffractive and holographic optical elements for the next generation display technologies at Leia Inc. and Apple Inc. In 2023, he returned to Prof. Takashima’s Advanced Lidar and Display Lab to continue his research in optical engineering for AR displays, leveraging industry experience to bridge academic innovation and real‑world design challenges.