Shaping the Future of Photonics: Highlights from the 2025 Hamamatsu Innovation Awards

The Hamamatsu Photonics Innovation Awards 2025 invited applicants ranging from students and early-career researchers to OEMs and established companies to showcase innovative concepts involving photonics technology. The rewards for the winners included €10,000, a year of promotional support, and an invaluable opportunity for collaboration with Hamamatsu’s Pilot Line service, fostering groundbreaking developments in this vital field.

This year, the challenge of the award attracted many exciting entries from the EMEA region. The three winning projects, each representing a different category, distinguished themselves through their profound impact and intelligent application of light-based technology. In this article, we highlight the winners and underscore the significance of this award in shaping the future of innovation.

About the Hamamatsu Photonics Innovation Awards

Occurring every two years, the primary aim is to support projects that utilize photonics to address pressing challenges within fields such as medicine, computing, and environment sectors.

Entries are judged based on three essential criteria:

• Innovation

• Advanced Feasibility Status (Technology Ready)

• Impact on Society

The financial reward serves as a catalyst, encouraging winners to develop their project further.

2025 Awards Highlights

This year's Hamamatsu Innovation Awards saw an impressive array of entries from across Europe. Judges encountered a diverse collection of ideas, from compact laser tools to smart sensors and medical research tools. Many entries emphasized increased efficiency and affordability, while others explored techniques for reducing energy consumption and promoting environmental sustainability.

Experts from Hamamatsu and partners meticulously reviewed submissions based on criteria that rewarded innovation and market viability. The quality of work and the enthusiasm driving each idea left a lasting impression. It was evident that the next generation of engineers is poised to influence the photonics industry profoundly. 

The 2025 Winners: A New Step Forward in Imaging

Three winners emerged this year, each representing a different category:

Innovation Category Winner: ZuriQ

ZuriQ is pioneering the development of scalable quantum computers using trapped-ion qubits. Their groundbreaking approach focuses on creating large arrays of qubits controllable by light. This capitalizes on the long coherence times and impressive precision of trapped ions. Their methodology employs photonic integrated circuits to direct laser light and facilitate data collection through imaging systems, marking a significant advancement in quantum computing.

ZuriQ shared their thoughts on the award:

“Trapping ions is one of the most promising quantum computing modalities for generating qubits because ions have very long coherence times and very high gate fidelities. But one of the biggest challenges of scaling them up was simply putting more physical qubits on the system and controlling them. So our innovation was to focus on building large two-dimensional arrays of qubits that we can manipulate with laser light.”

Advanced Feasibility Status Winner: Coher Sense

Coher Sense was recognized for their compact laser multimeter, a small device designed to measure laser properties, such as power and wavelength, with ease. Their goal is to make laser measurements more accessible and affordable, particularly for individuals and industries lacking specialized expertise. This innovative tool has the potential to broaden the reach of photonic sensing technology.

Impact on Society Winner: Minos Biosciences

Minos Biosciences is developing an advanced cell analysis platform that correlates the functional behavior of cells with their genetic data on a single-cell basis. 

This tool empowers scientists to unravel complex conditions such as cancer resistance, which affects millions of people each year. It provides a novel approach to supporting drug development and facilitating precision medicine through high-throughput, integrated analysis.

Why Hamamatsu’s Photonics Innovation Awards Matter

Photonics technologies play a crucial role in solving modern challenges across healthcare, energy, security, and communications. In medicine, photonics powers techniques such as optical coherence tomography OCT, fluorescence microscopy, and laser-based surgery, which are essential for non-invasive diagnostics and high-resolution imaging.

In communications, fiber-optic networks, grounded in photonics principles, enable global internet infrastructure and are central to the scalability of 5G and future 6G systems. Photonic components, including modulators and wavelength-division multiplexers, are key to increasing bandwidth and reducing latency.

Hamamatsu has confirmed that the next Photonics Innovation Awards will be held in 2027. With strong interest and growing participation, future submissions are expected to uncover even more groundbreaking solutions.

Photonics for a Brighter Future or ‘A Brighter Future

The Hamamatsu Photonics Innovation Awards 2025 winners demonstrate the power of photonics when applied to real-world problems. Hamamatsu will continue to support the photonics community through these awards and other programs. They hope to inspire more people to explore the possibilities of photonics in science and technology.

If you're working on a photonics-related idea or startup company,  the company encourages you to apply for the next Innovation Awards. Follow Hamamatsu Photonics on their website and social channels for industry updates. Your project could be the next step in advancing the world through light.