February 5 2021:Prof. Bishnu Pal, Dean Academics and Professor of Natural Sciences at Mahindra University’s Ecole Centrale School of Engineering, has been awarded “The 2021 SPIE Maria J. Yzuel Educator Award” by The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). 
The SPIE Maria J. Yzuel Educator Award recognizes outstanding contributions to optics education by an educator in the field. Prof Pal has been named for this award “in recognition of four decades of sustained contributions in education, outreach, research, technical program committees of global flagship conferences, and editing  our popular publications in guided wave optics and photonics”. The award will be formally given to him at the annual award Banquet during SPIE Optics+ Photonics conference scheduled at San Diego USA on August 1-5, 2021.
“We congratulate Prof. Bishnu Pal, for having been named the 2021 SPIE Maria J Yzuel Educator Award. Prof. Bishnu Pal continues to lead from the front in the field of Optics and Photonics and this is just another acknowledgement of his contribution to the sector, as several thousands of his students can vouch for. Mahindra University is so proud to have such an eminent academic as its Dean: There is hardly any recognition in the field that he has not won and his exceptional list of awards is unparalleled in the sector”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University
The 2018 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Prof Donna Strickland from Waterloo University, Canada, says, ‘It is a well-deserved for your many contributions to training optical scientists from your own teaching to the incredible service you do for the optics community’.