Photonics for a Better World

One of the best chances of the year for the US photonics industry to capture the ear of Congress is scheduled to begin Friday: the August recess. Do you wish that your Congressional representative or senator understood why your photonics business or research is important to the economy? Do you wish that your representative knew how photonics helps -- to give just a few examples -- ensure community safety, cure diseases such as cancer, enable mobile phone communications and the internet, power 3D printing of airplane parts -- and create new industry and jobs? To help tell the photonics story, researchers including Naomi Halas of Rice University (above) tell in an SPIE.tv video how they use optics and photonics  to kill cancer, treat brain disorders, make  computers run faster, convert mobile phones  into sophisticated wireless diagnostic  devices, identify concealed explosives, and  more. ( Video:1:38 ) And do you wish that Congres...

In order for research to become useful, researchers and developers from academia, industry and government have to share their needs and ideas. Everyone in the field knows that. Most people would agree that much of the value and action-steps come from hallway conversations among presenters and attendees. And nearly everyone in the field has a great deal of apprehension about the serious threat to global technology leadership and economic viability wrought by current U.S. restrictions on travel by government employees. In the photonics sector, this includes the scientists and engineers at NASA, NIST, NIH, DOD, DOE, NSF, NOAA, and several other agencies. Rep. Rush Holt is one of a very few professional scientists serving in the U.S. Congress. (Photo: Kate Bohler, Asia Society/Flickr) Scientist and U.S. Congressman Rush Holt of New Jersey, formerly the assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (and the man who beat “Watson,” IBM’s computer system in a simu...

Vertigo -- a dizzy, confused, disoriented state of mind -- is a nearly universal response when looking out over the edge of a cliff. But the managers and researchers at labs and universities across the United States don’t have time for vertigo as they contemplate the brink of the impending “fiscal cliff.” With 10 days (and a major holiday week) before a deadline that would among other things substantially reduce federal funding for scientific research, the House of Representatives has adjourned until after the first of the year, delaying or eliminating the opportunity for a different resolution. After the first of the year, more than $500 billion in automatic tax increases and spending cuts will begin to take effect, threatening to undermine the sluggish recovery and prompt a new recession, a Washington Post article noted yesterday. (The New York Times provides detailed analysis as well.) So, labs and universities are reviewing contingency plans for worst-case scenari...

A new report on the U.S. photonics industry updates a 1998 study. Governments in Asia, Europe, North America, and elsewhere are finding new ways to prioritize their efforts to support optics technologies and industries and to advance their own national competitiveness and economic success A recent article in the SPIE Professional magazine surveyed the latest developments around the world. This post on policy in North America is the final part in a series that borrows from the magazine's report and has been edited to reflect the release on 13 August of the U.S. National Academies’ “Optics and Photonics, Essential Technologies for Our Nation.” The report was commissioned as an update to the National Academies’ "Harnessing Light" report of 1998, credited with inspiring and informing policy strategies around the world following its release. Photonics in Canada In Canada earlier this year, the merger of the Canadian Institute for Photonic Innovations (CIPI)...

 Curiosity is spotted on parachute by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on its descent to the surface. Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech It’s hard not to have noticed the glee among those interested in space exploration and in fact science in general this week, following the successful deployment on the ground of the Curiosity rover by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). If you missed it, check out the video and coverage on MSNBC . There are plenty of photonic instruments on the Curiosity , from the fancy cameras that are sending back pictures, to the laser rock-blaster that is making smoke for analysis by the (photonic) spectrometer. Optics and photonics are also making possible incredible front-page images, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, of the lander parachuting to the surface. The team who has worked for nearly nine years to make the landing and now the mission happen include NASA staff as well as contractors. One of the latter, Ken...

Horizon 2020 aims for R&D invesment in the EU. Governments in Asia, Europe, North America, and elsewhere are finding new ways to prioritize their efforts to support optics technologies and industries and to advance their own national competitiveness and economic success. A recent article in the SPIE Professional magazine surveyed the latest developments around the world. This post on European policy is part of a series that borrows from the magazine's report. A previous post focused on what is happening in Asia; next up is North America, where an update to the "Harnessing Light" report of 1998 is expected to be released by mid-August. The European Commission (EC) is negotiating the budget details of its landmark Horizon 2020 program, unveiled last November, which aims to invest €80 billion for research and innovation between 2014 and 2020. Photonics was named one of Europe’s five key enabling technologies (along with advanced materials, biotechno...

Governments in Asia, Europe, North America, and elsewhere are finding new ways to prioritize their efforts to support optics technologies and industries and to advance their own national competitiveness and economic success. A recent article in the SPIE Professional magazine surveyed the latest developments around the world. This post shares some of the magazine's report on what is happening in Asia, where a major focus is on efficient energy. Future posts will focus on Europe and North America. Asian governments have taken varied approaches in their support of optics and photonics industries. Last year, the Chinese government announced the 12th iteration of its Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development. The plan, which runs through 2015, includes a focus on the economic value of seven “strategic emerging industries.” Recent reports have estimated that the Chinese government will spend $1.5 trillion US on subsidies in the fields of biotechnology,...

Eco-metamaterials engineered by optics and photonics researchers can lighten our environmental footprint and just may be -- ironically -- more sustainable than materials found in nature. So say Nerac analysts Rosemarie Szostak and Michael Kapralos in their article in the July 2012 issue of SPIE Professional magazine. Metamaterials combine micro or nano structural features instead of relying on composition alone to achieve the desired properties. They have sparked the imagination of the optics and photonics community with their unusual characteristics, and researchers are developing unique metamaterials for their potential as invisibility cloaks, high-efficiency photovoltaics, super-antennas, and ultrabright LEDs. Eco-metamaterials may not yet be "green" based on their composition. However, the reduced quantities of materials, especially toxic ones, used in their development and metamaterials’ inherent potential for exotic properties allow technologists to...

Meeting the challenge of successfully converting research into innovation is a major goal of the European Commission's Horizon 2020 initiative, as Thierry Van der Pyl , Director of Components and Systems in the EC's Information Society and Media Directorate-General, discusses in this new SPIE. TV video interview . Organized to leverage the interdisciplinary nature of solutions to challenges in energy, lighting, communications, healthcare, manufacturing other areas, Horizon 2020 aims to improve Europe's ability to transform knowledge into applications that have an economic impact through the strength of public-private partnership, Van der Pyl says. Photonics is truly a vital part of the interdisciplinary mix, and well-deserving of its recognition by the EC as one of six Key Enabling Technologies. The June 2011 report of the High-Level Expert Group on Key Enabling Technologies estimated that the 5,000 photonics companies in the EU direct...

Researchers and engineers in optics and photonics are watching closely, along with scientists from other disciplines, as governments look at serious budget cuts. Everything is on the table, but of major concern is whether science and technology will suffer a disproportionate share of these budget cuts. Ron Driggers “Science and technology make an easy target for government policy makers, since frequently these fields are not seen to have an immediate effect on any individual’s livelihood,” notes Ron Driggers, Editor of Optical Engineering and a superintendent of the optical sciences division of the U.S. Naval Research Lab. However, he stresses, science and technology have a dramatic long-term effect on everyone’s livelihood, driving the economy and changing our lives for the better in many ways. “Science and technology literally create entire industries, and one result is jobs,” he asserts. “The creation and maintenance of the associated jobs more than repays the initial invest...

Not only does Philips Lighting North America ’s 10-watt LED bulb have the potential for saving billions of dollars in U.S. energy consumption and avoiding millions of metric tons of carbon emissions: it’s dimmable as well.   The bulb has earned the San Jose, California, company the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) — the L Prize — for a 10-watt replacement for the 60-watt incandescent bulb. Replacing every 60-watt incandescent bulb in the U.S. with Philips’10-watt LED bulb would save 35 terawatt-hours of electricity or $3.9 billion in one year and avoid 20 million metric tons of carbon emissions, according to the DOE prize announcement (enough electricity to power the lights of nearly 18 million U.S. households , or nearly triple the annual electricity consumption in Washington, D.C.).  Steve Landau of Philips talks about the prize-winning bulb in this SPIE Newsroom video: LEDs for wireless, too Researchers at the Fraunhofe...

The recent news from Brussels that the European Commission is proposing to increase research and innovation funding to €80.2 billion for the 2014-2020 budget has a decidedly green tint. Some of the money in the proposal to fund the EU’s newly named Horizon 2020 strategy would be earmarked for energy, and some to make the economy greener and more competitive. Examples of how photonics -- one of the six Key Enabling Technologies identified by the European Commission -- drives innovation in support of sustainability are everywhere. As an overview, Steve Eglash (Stanford University and Precourt Institute for Energy) explains in this video just what "green photonics" is, and talks about the integration of disciplines such as psychology, law, business, and physics. In a keynote paper presented last March at SPIE Eco-Photonics in Strasbourg, Berit Wessler (OSRAM) and Ursula Tober (VDI Technologiezentrum) provided a comprehensive look at the direct environmental bene...

( Michelle Xu is a PhD-graduate from the University of Toronto, where she worked to engineer diagnostic hand-held devices using nano-grating surface plasmon sensors and nano-pillar photonics crystal sensors to enable the early detection of cancer. Knowing that her device could identify high-risk individuals and help prevent disease, she was motivated to commercialize her research. To support her efforts, Newport and SPIE sponsored her attendance at the Biomedical Engineering Entrepreneurship Acadamy (BMEA) held at the University of California, Davis earlier this month. Below are her reflections on the experience. Her colleague Chang Won will be writing about his experience at the academy next week!) The number one lesson I learned at the BMEA was that in academia, we start by solving a problem and then search for needs; in business planning, we start with a need, and then solve the problem. This issue of course raises the question, “Are technologies validated differently in aca...

We’re living in the Century of the Photon, and examples of the important roles the enabling technology of photonics and optics play in our lives are everywhere. For examples, start with computers and the internet. SPIE Fellow John Greivenkamp , professor of optics at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences, talks about the optical technologies inherent in those applications in this brief video. A list of 50 breakthroughs contributed by researchers at America’s national labs has been compiled in a brochure published by the U.S. Department of Energy , and posted in a PDF on their website. Among the list: From learning about photosynthesis came the ability to explore how to derive sustainable energy from the sun. An engineered particle removes arsenic from drinking water, and an ultraviolet-light system kills microbes that cause water-borne diseases. A revolution in medicine that has saved many lives with cancer-detecting nuclear imaging devices came out of ...

Quick quiz: List five examples of how photonics technology has changed how you live -- how you work, travel, relax, look after your health --- whatever. Easy, right? Now, name five photonics-based changes you expect to see in the near future. Also easy. Photonics solutions are everywhere, and the time is ripe for more photonics innovation. Governments, industry, and other funders around the world are developing new policy initiatives and offering new sources of funding in support of photonics R&D. Some of those initiatives need your participation to be successful. Among them: ●   In the UK, photonics recently was named one of the potential candidate areas for investment in the next phase of the Strategy and Implementation Plan for Technology and Innovation Centres (TICs). If you live in the UK, you can help influence that choice: Comments about what photonics can do are being sought, and can be posted on the photonics TIC discussion space or emailed to centres@tsb.g...

Three aspiring biophotonics  entrepreneurs working on potentially life-saving techniques for detecting cancer and malaria have won some expert help in moving their ideas to market. As winners of a Biophotonics Startup Challenge at SPIE Photonics West in January, the three are being sponsored by Newport Spectra-Physics to attend the Biomedical Engineering Entrepreneurship Academy at the University of California, Davis, next summer. A cheek-swab test for lung cancer would be "a paradigm shift, in that we don't need to examine the tumor itself to determine the presence of cancer," said Hariharan Subramanian (Northwestern University) of the technique he and colleagues including Hemant Roy (North Shore University Health System) and Vadim Backman (Northwestern) have developed. Hariharan Subramanian describes for Biophotonics Startup Challenge judges the technology behind a cheek-swab test for lung cancer. A system based on total internal reflection principles that...

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...

Intel’s Mario Paniccia has an amazing list of tasks that could be done via a fingernail-size chip loaded with optical integrated circuits: download the contents of the U.S. Library of Congress in 1.5 minutes, or an entire movie or 150 albums worth of music in a second; or run complex medical imaging from a handheld device, to name just a few items.   An important new piece in creating the solutions for making all that happen in a cost-effective way got a big push forward yesterday in Seattle, at the kick-off event for the new OpSIS lab at the University of Washington. Michael Hochberg (University of Washington), Director of OpSIS    Michael Hochberg, Director of OpSIS (Optoelectronic Systems Integration in Silicon) was joined by high-level friends and partners as well as UW staff, faculty, and students in launching the new lab, a multi-project wafer shuttle service for silicon photonics.   CalTech's Carver Mead -- who coined Moore's Law and is a co-in...