Photonics for a Better World

Dr. Ashleigh Haruda is a zooarchaeologist. Dr. Ashleigh Haruda She examines animal bones found at archaeological sites to investigate the relationship between animals and ancient human societies. These bones reveal information about ancient societies including diet, trade, migration, and market forces. For her doctoral research, she studied pastoralists living in the Central Asian steppe in the Late and Final Bronze Age (1500-800 B.C.E.). These were people who did not practice agriculture, but lived off of their animals, including sheep. “Primarily these people are experiencing their world and their landscape through their animals,” said Haruda. “So, if they fail to move their animals in the right way, or they fail to understand how the weather is going to be that year, they could all die because there was no safety net for them.” By measuring the bones of sheep found in the steppe from the Final Bronze Age, she was able to determine that these pastoralists did not migrate exte...

As we have heard from countless members of the optics and photonics community, raising awareness of optics among the public and sparking interest in students at a young age are crucial to the future of light-based technology. 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, tying directly to the cross-global festivities held on the 16th of that month. You can learn more about our Micro Grant program  here . With less than two weeks until the 2019 IDL, we are revisiting some of the 2018 IDL SPIE Micro Grant winners from around the world, showcasing their celebrations of light and its impact. The University of Southampton in England and Stellenbosch University in South Africa both took the approach of "good things come in threes!" for their Micro Grant activities. Read on to see what the...

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...

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...

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...

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...