Photonics for a Better World

This is a guest blog written by Michèle Moris and Charlotte Verstraete on behalf of the KU Leuven SPIE/OSA Student Chapter. Children’s University. Photo credit: ©KU Leuven | Rob Stevens Greetings from the KU Leuven SPIE/OSA Student Chapter in Belgium! We’d like to share with you how participating in outreach has shaped our chapter and given us hope for the future. We are fortunate in that our university has organized several annual events to help educate the public, especially children, about science. Last year we were able to contribute to two of these events: Children’s University and Day of Science. Future-focused Photonics Day At Children’s University, children aged 8 to 13 can walk in the shoes of university students for a day. They attend a scientific seminar, followed by a workshop that simulates lab work. At noon, they have lunch in the cafeteria, and a similar program of lectures and workshops is held in the afternoon. The only difference between this and real u...

On 16 May, the second International Day of Light (IDL) will celebrate the importance of light and light-based technologies to individuals and communities around the world. SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, supports IDL in part by offering Micro Grants towards SPIE Member activities that showcase and share the role that light plays in our lives. We are currently welcoming applications for 2019 IDL Micro Grants, with an application deadline of 15 December. Last year, SPIE supported activities across the globe, from Cote D’Ivoire, Argentina, the US and India, to Thailand, Italy, the UK, and South Africa. Programs engaged students of all ages, professors, volunteers, and industry professionals, resulting in exciting, impactful events. The Université Laval SPIE Student Chapter in Quebec City built an interactive, informative, light-phenomena-sharing platform, La Terrasse Optique , in front of the Quebec Parliament, making their venture an educational, scient...

SPIE Women in Optics program has been enhancing and promoting the personal and professional growth of women in STEM since 1998. With its proactive focus on diversity, inclusivity, gender equity, SPIE leverages its extensive networks as well as its funding programs to support professionals and students alike. Two Society grant programs, currently open for application, offer critical opportunities to SPIE Members, their communities, and their families. The SPIE Women in Optics Activity Grant Networking lunches and diversity coffee-and-cake meetups; hosting high-profile visiting speakers; recruiting and building groups of students interested in optics-focused careers; running STEM-engagement workshops aimed at young girls; and creating symposiums at which students interact with women professionals from industry and academia: these are just a few of the myriad activities that recipients of the SPIE Women in Optics Activity Grant have implemented around the world. The program, now en...

TEAM STEM: 2018 Participants It's a feast for the science-curious senses: in June, two cohorts of two dozen middle-school girls came together for the free, STEM-focused, four-day-long Physics Wonder Girls Camp sessions organized by Dr. Roberto Ramos, associate professor of physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. The girls studied the properties of light, built telescopes, designed and engineered submersible robots, and learned about scientific professions directly from the experts: nanoscientist and Chair of Bryn Mawr College's Physics Department Dr. Xuemei Cheng; INTEL software engineer Dr. Marisa Bauza-Roman; and several female food scientists from Puratos, a global company working with bakers and chocolatiers to assess the best ways to improve their products, all came and talked about their professions, answering questions and interacting with the campers. Plus, they got to be on TV ! The camp was initially inspired by Dr. Ramos' daughter K...

SPIE’s #FacesofPhotonics is a showcase across social media that connects SPIE members in the optics and photonics community around the world. It serves to highlight similarities, celebrate differences, and foster a space for conversation and community to thrive. Angeles Rosales Camacho Back in April, we shared the story of SPIE Student Member Angeles Rosales Camacho. Angeles is the 2018 Student Chapter President at the University of Southampton, and a PhD researcher in the Optoelectronic Research Centre. She is the winner of her university’s 2017 Women In Science, Engineering, and Technology (WiSET) award, and is a dedicated outreach ambassador. In Forbes Mexico's most recent edition, Angles was listed as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women In Mexico! An incredibly well-deserved recognition for her work with young girls and women in STEM. See Forbes' entire list here . We hope you enjoy her #FacesofPhotonics interview. 1. Tell us about when you first became...

The first International Day of Light was 16 May 2018, and SPIE joined citizens around the globe in celebration of lifesaving, life-enhancing light. To assist communities in the organization of their own celebrations of light, SPIE made available micro-grants worth up to US$3,000 to help fund and execute their events.  Available to SPIE Members, the grants provided for planned activities that highlighted the critical role that light plays in our daily lives. The activity also had to occur during the month of May 2018 and tie directly to the inaugural event on the 16th. Our 2018 SPIE IDL Micro Grant recipients included: Martina Mrongovius and the Center for the Holographic Arts (USA) Thouakesseh Jeremie Zoueu and Institut National Polytechnique Felix Houphouet-Boigny (Cote D'Ivoire) Amar Deo Chandra and IISER Kolkata (India) Jesús Carlos Alberto Obando Aguirre and the Instituto de Luz Ambiente y Visión (Argentina) P.T. Ajith Kumar and Light Logics Holograp...

March is Women's History Month, and we close out the month interviewing SPIE Fellow and Past President María Josefa Yzuel for our 'Why Light?' series. Emeritus Professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Yzuel works tirelessly to promote women in science, serving as a leading member of the SPIE Women in Optics group. She took time to answer questions from our series that leads up to the first International Day of Light, and explains why she feels that light is so important. The inaugural International Day of Light – IDL – will take place 16 May 2018. IDL is a global initiative that provides an annual focal point for the continued appreciation of light. This day recognizes light and the vital role it plays in science, culture and art, education, and sustainable development. On 16 May, join SPIE and communities worldwide by participating in activities that illustrate how the science and art of light improves all our lives. For more information and to plan your ...

Anne-Sophie Poulin-Girard is chair of the SPIE Education Committee, which monitors the educational activities of the Society and the quality of educational programs conducted in the name of the Society. Anne-Sophie, an Early Career Professional Member of SPIE is also the next community member to answer our 'Why Light?' series. The series is leading up to the first International Day of Light, and asks SPIE Members to explain why they feel light is so important. The inaugural International Day of Light – IDL – will take place 16 May 2018. IDL is a global initiative that provides an annual focal point for the continued appreciation of light. This day recognizes light and the vital role it plays in science, culture and art, education, and sustainable development. On 16 May, join SPIE and communities worldwide by participating in activities that illustrate how the science and art of light improves all our lives. For more information and to plan your own event, visit spie.org/...

Optical technologies and the people who work with them have brought tangible social, environmental, health, and economic gains to humanity. A prime example is the solar cooker, designed for sunny and dry climates. Varieties of these have provided thousands of people with alternative sources for cooking fuel. The top five countries with ideal solar cooking climates are India, China, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. In the photo above, Sandipan Mukherjee demonstrates the popular use of solar cookers in a remote village in Nubra Valley, India. Off the national power grid, Nubra Valley is tucked away in a high-altitude, cold desert between the Himalaya and Karakoram mountain ranges. Solar-based technology plays a crucial role inthe village. Although it can be bitterly cold in Turtuk during the winter, the area still receives strong sun rays. The three types of solar cookers are heat-trap boxes, curved concentrators, and panel cookers. The solar cooker shown above is a curved ...

Next week several hundred scientists will leave the comfort and familiarity of their labs and lecture halls to attempt a very difficult task: convince politicians of the priority of funding science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, research and innovation. SET-CVD 2010 volunteers This event is happening in Washington, D.C., via the Science-Engineering-Technology Working Group’s 16 th annual Congressional Visits Day , but the challenge -- the opportunity, really -- is one faced by the science community around the world. SPIE members will be among the volunteers participating. EU Green Paper The European Commission has invited comments from stakeholders on a Green Paper which aims to launch a public debate on the future of EU research and innovation funding. Photonics industry and research professionals are among those from other disciplines offering their perspectives. While competing for governmental support may pit science against other needs and i...

Knowledge is power. In the case of science, knowledge shared can also result in funding and other support for the R&D that will solve many of the world’s energy, healthcare, communications, and other problems. But ... how to go about sharing? One of the mid-week television highlights over the last month has been the NOVA series on “Making Stuff,” with its four episodes on clean technology, smart materials, nanotechnology, and high-strength materials. “Stuff” refers to materials but the overlaps with light-based technologies -- optics and photonics -- are pervasive, and the show’s host, New York Times tech columnist David Pogue, is an effective ambassador for science. (Follow the link below to see the series on PBS.) (From the series web page: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/making-stuff.html ) David is not the only science ambassador out there. I sat in on a meeting during SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco last month at which a group of 20 people went around the r...