Arashmid Nahal, researcher at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences, Zanjan, Iran, and Luis Fernando Perez Quintian, researcher at the Department of Physics at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, share the ICO-ICTP Award for 2001 in consideration of their extensive use of optical methods in their research work. Particularly appreciated are the works of Arashmid Nahal on polarized light effects in photosensitive films, and those of Perez Quintian on the diffusion of light on surfaces.