Photonics for a Better World

Gavrielle presents her research in Ven SPIE Student Member Gavrielle Untracht is pursuing her PhD at The University of Western Australia. She had the chance to participate in the 9th International Graduate Summer School in Biophotonics this past June on the island of Ven between Sweden and Denmark. At the school, sponsored by SPIE, invited experts from around the globe gave extended presentations on topics like tissue optics, strategies for cancer treatment using lasers, and entrepreneurship in photonics. Attendees also had the opportunity to present their current research projects, results, or ideas. Gavrielle shares her experiences of the summer school with this community in the following guest blog post. I recently returned from a week of great discussions and beautiful weather at the 9th Biophotonics Summer School on the Isle of Ven, Sweden. This experience, made possible (in part) by SPIE, was an invaluable opportunity for networking and a deep dive into the world of bi...

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...

David Sampson is a Fellow Member of SPIE, on the Board of Directors, and Vice-Provost of Research and Innovation at the University of Surrey. He is also the next community member to answer our 'Why Light?' series. The series is leading up to the second annual International Day of Light this 16 May, and asks members of the SPIE community to explain why they feel light is so important. David has nearly thirty years’ research experience in photonics, optics, and microscopy, and applications in communications and biomedicine. He is an authority in optical coherence tomography, with several main interests including the microscope-in-a-needle. As a Board Member he serves on several committees for SPIE, including the Strategic Planning Committee and the Conference Program Committee, and regularly contributes to SPIE's conferences and journals. He took time out of his very busy schedule to answer for us what light means to him and to the greater global community. David Sam...

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...

We are less than two months away from the 2019 International Day of Light (IDL). In preparation for this annual event, we will be revisiting our 2018 IDL SPIE Micro Grant winners from around the world, showcasing celebrations of IDL in their communities. Each year, SPIE provides 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. You can learn more here . This week we travel the United States coast-to-coast, visiting HoloCenter in New York City and Sumner Middle School in Sumner, Washington. HoloCenter: Center for the Holographic Arts Despite cold, rainy weather in May and June of 2018, over 2000 people made the ferry boat ride from Manhattan and Brooklyn out to Governor's Island in New York City to attend "Artist Photonics," a five week exhibition held...

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...

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...