Update 2010
At the end of 2010, Liying Chen undertook the position of Optical Research Scientist for Microsoft Coporation. Prior to Microsoft, Liying was an Associate Research Scientist at the Center for Gamma-Ray Imaging (CGRI) at The University of Arizona. At the University of Arizona, Liying's efforts involved optical design and system development for photon-counting X-ray radiography and tomography. Stemming from past success in using optical imaging means to directly detect charged particles, she developed new systems to realize direct charged-particle (beta particle or positron) tomography. Other research included image analysis and objective image quality assessment.

Award Year 2000
Liying Chen, a Ph.D. candidate at the Optical Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA, winner of the 2000 award, was selected from a field of exceptional applicants as the first recipient of the Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship. Liying provides a brief description of her educational experiences below:

"I am the only child of a loving family in China. Both of my parents were my teachers before I went to school. My mother is a High School Physics teacher. She instilled in me my interest in physics and related sciences. My father is a chemical engineer who helped me to learn about the natural sciences. After I completed my basic schooling, I was an undergraduate at the University of Science and Technology of China. My major was mathematics and physics. I really appreciated the opportunity to learn so much fundamental science from the professors in my school. This strong base has helped me to formulate my future goals.

After joining the Optical Sciences Center, at the University of Arizona, I began to focus on optical system testing and design. I worked in Dr. Jim Wyant’s laboratory for a year. The practical work and research made me aware of the importance of optical system analysis and the resulting optical design. I have learned a great deal about optical design, by studying the work of previous optical designers. This is the main reason for my project with Dr. Harry Barrett.

My research deals with determination of the statistics for both practical applications and theoretical observations of lens design. For example with an optically coupled X-ray diagnostic imager, I obtained images from an existing X-ray imager with different FOV's and with different f/numbers. As a result I hope to gain enough information for a future simulation. Based on the simulation results, the detectability and other merit figures can be used to characterize the system and further optimize the system design."