The SPIE G. G. Stokes Award in Optical Polarization is presented for exceptional contribution to the field of optical polarization. The award may be presented for a specific achievement, development, or invention of significant importance to optical science and society, or may be given for lifetime achievement. Honorarium $2,000.
Sir George Gabriel Stokes (August 13, 1819 – February 1, 1903) was an Irish physicist and mathematician. Born in Ireland, Stokes spent all of his career at the University of Cambridge, where he served as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1849 until his death in 1903. In physics, Stokes made seminal contributions to physical optics and polarized light. He derived an expression, now known as Stokes's Law, for the frictional/drag force exerted on spherical objects with very small Reynolds numbers in a viscous fluid.