Photonics for a Better World

PITCH PERFECT: Optics expert Jessica DeGroote Nelson  SPIE Senior Member Jessica DeGroote Nelson works as the director of technology and strategy at Optimax Systems in Ontario, New York. She also teaches as an adjunct assistant professor at The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester (UR), and is a Conference Chair for SPIE Optifab 2019.  Nelson also teaches  Optical Materials, Fabrication, and Testing for the Optical Engineer  at SPIE conferences. This course is geared toward optical engineers who are hoping to learn the basics about how optics are made, and ways in which to help reduce the cost of the optics they are designing. It is also offered online. "Optical tolerancing and the cost to fabricate an optic can be a point of tension or confusion between optical designers and optical fabricators," Nelson says. "I teach this course to help give optical designers who are new to the field a few tools in their toolbelt as they navigate toler...

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS: Ebongue smiles as she overcomes  her fear of heights  at the top of the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka, Japan Bonjour ! Meet Christiane Ebongue, graduate student at Delaware State University (DSU).  Christiane is working on a master's degree in applied optics with a goal of achieving a PhD in Physics. When she is not spending time in the lab  —   something she says she loves so much, she would even want to be there on her birthday!  —  she enjoys her role as president of her university's SPIE Student Chapter. Ebongue moved to the United States from Cameroon for college, although she only spoke French at the time. Learning to speak a new language while learning a new field of science was intimidating, she says, but this feat just speaks to how tenacious of a person Ebongue is. Another example of this steadfast dedication and passion lies in her photonics advocacy work. After defending her thesis in the morning, Ebongue hopped...

WORKING TOWARD A CURE: PhD student Christopher Pacia  smiles for the camera Why haven't we found a cure for cancer yet? This is the question that motivates Christopher Pacia when he's doing research  in the  Chen Ultrasound Lab  at  Washington University in St. Louis  (WUSTL) . Pacia is a  PhD student in biomedical engineering, and his research focuses on  ultrasound imaging and therapy that can impact cancer patient care. "With a greater understanding of the brain, treatments can be more patient-specific," says Pacia. "In that way, they will also be more effective in improving the lives of those affected by the seemingly boundless complexity of neurological disorders." Pacia is the current Vice President of the SPIE Student Chapter at his university, under the supervision of 2019 SPIE Britton Chance Award winner, Dr. Samuel Achilefu . The chapter is involved in a variety of local outreach activities which, according to Pacia, is one of th...

CEO POWER: Dr. Misty Blowers From the US Air Force Research Lab to Vice President of Cybersecurity at ICF to CEO of her own defense consulting company, SPIE Member Dr. Misty Blowers continues to make waves in the defense security world. She has always been unwavering in her dedication to this community, citing her drive toward positive change: "I hope to make a technical contribution that can make the world a better place." Many would say she's already accomplished this. In 2018, Dr. Blowers was awarded the SPIE Early Career Achievement Award for her dedication to advancing applied machine-learning solutions to help solve real-world problems. Her commitment to the field also shines through in her multiple years serving on SPIE conference committees at SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing (DCS), and her 2016 publication of Evolution of Cyber Operations and Technologies to 2035 (Springer) which she discusses in the interview below. Enjoy the interview! SHINE BRIGH...

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...

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...