Photonics for a Better World

Each year, SPIE provides International Day of Light (IDL) Micro Grants to SPIE Members who want to celebrate the importance of light and share that knowledge with their community. These activities must take place during the month of May and tie directly to the cross-global festivities held on the 16th of that month. As we get closer to the 2019 International Day of Light, we will be re-visiting our 2018 IDL Micro Grant winners from around the world, and showcasing the innovative ways they celebrated this annual event in their communities. This week we visit Auckland, New Zealand, and San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico, to meet the bright minds who celebrated IDL 2018 with the help of an SPIE Micro Grant. The University of Auckland SPIE Student Chapter RAINBOW EFFECT: Observing life through SPIE IDL diffraction glasses  Laser experiments, diffraction glasses, and famous scientists -- oh my! The University of Auckland SPIE Student Chapter and The Dodd-Walls Centre for P...

ONE IN FIFTEEN: Angeliki  Zafeiropoulou  in the lab at the  Optoelectronics  Research Center Angeliki Zafeiropoulou, known to friends as Angie, was born and raised in Athens, Greece. She is a PhD student at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, and is one of 15 students who won a  FINESSE  Early Stage Research (ESR) fellowship. As part of her fellowship, she works at Fibercore Limited in Southampton and gets many opportunities to interact with other institutions, conducting research as a visiting PhD student. She recently finished a three-month secondment at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in the Photonics Innovation Center, where she enjoyed the collaborative aspect of her work: it's clear that Zafeiropoulou will feel complete, as she notes below, "to know that I have accomplished my personal goal of doing research that has an impact on the society." Enjoy SPIE's Faces of Photonics interview with Angie! 1. Explain your current r...

The International Day of Light Logo Created by SPIE. The second International Day of Light (IDL) is only a few months away. Held on 16 May each year and organized by UNESCO, IDL is a global initiative for the continued appreciation of light and the role it plays in science, culture and art, education, and sustainable development.  The broad theme of light allows many different sectors of society worldwide to participate in activities that demonstrate how the science, technology, and artistic expression of light can help achieve the goals of UNESCO — education, equality and peace. SPIE enthusiastically supports the initiative and has created resources and funding opportunities to encourage local communities in creating their own celebration. New Resources from SPIE An example of a French Lesson Plan Worksheet: Diffraction Glasses. Demonstrate the science of light with SPIE IDL Outreach Activities. In partnership with SPIE Student Chapters, and various ...

DYNAMIC FORCE: Patel enjoys a rainy day at the Gufufoss waterfall in Iceland Salut!  Meet Deven Patel, a graduate student at Université Laval's Center for Optics, Photonics, and Lasers (COPL) in Quebec City who is also working as an opto-mechanical designer at Esterline Technologies Corporation. Over the past two years, Patel was instrumental in Laval’s exoplanet-imaging project  HiCIBaS , or High-Contrast Imaging Balloon System. He had two main jobs: designing a dynamic structure for the star-pointing system and front-end optics (telescope, etc.), and developing a passive-cooling thermal system for the back-end optics system. "Basically, I developed the mechanical solutions that were necessary for the other systems to function correctly and to perform the science of the mission," he explains. I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW: HiCIBaS' telescope. Credit: Cédric Vallée The HiCIBaS project received quite a bit of media attention , and for good reason: "The proje...