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...

ACTION MAN: Brandon in the lab working on a lidar system Meet Brandon Hellman, this week's SPIE Faces of Photonics series feature. He is a student researcher at the University of Arizona, pursuing a PhD in Optical Sciences. Brandon and his colleagues work on making new lidar systems in Professor Yuzuru Takashima's lab. You can see a sample of their work on the College of Optical Sciences' YouTube page. Enjoy the interview with Brandon! 1. Share your favorite outreach or volunteer story.  Laser Fun Day is an annual optics outreach event put on by the Student Optics Chapter "SOCk" in the College of Optical Sciences. The event is free and open to the public, encouraging hundreds of children and adults of all ages to explore optics through hands-on demos put on by undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in the college.  Demos include a laser maze -- Mission: Impossible- style -- a six-foot-long kaleidoscope, laser radios, solar telescop...

"With my lasers!" SPIE's Faces of Photonics series is sharing the story of Dr. Hannah Williams! Hannah recently graduated from Imperial College London after completing her thesis on ultracold molecules . She now continues that research as a postdoctoral research associate in the College's Centre for Cold Matter. Along with her postdoc work,  Hannah recently announced via Twitter that she is a Doctoral Prize Research Fellow for The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. This recognition is yet another achievement to add to her impressive list of accomplishments, which includes organizing and leading events such as the Gamechangers for Diversity in STEM event held recently at the Alan Turing Institute in London, of which SPIE was a sponsor. Enjoy the interview with Hannah, and be sure to follow her on Twitter . During her PhD, Hannah spent two months conducting research at Columbia University 1. Tell us about when you first became intereste...

Anuja De Silva attending SPIE Advanced Lithography in San Jose, CA Meet the SPIE Faces of Photonics star of the week, SPIE Member Anuja De Silva. Anuja grew up in Sri Lanka and now resides in Albany, New York, where she works as a materials and process researcher in the Semiconductor Technology Research division of IBM. Speaking of her work, she says, "I develop new types of materials and processes that help us to scale the size of computer chips... It's hardware development for next-generation semiconductor devices." Anuja graduated with her Bachelor's in Chemistry from Mount Holyoke College and went on to get her Master's and PhD in Materials Chemistry from Cornell University. Upon conducting a research project for her undergraduate degree, she found her passion for optics and materials research. Anuja and husband Nelson Felix attend SPIE Advanced Lithography together. The couple both work at IBM. "I have always been interested in math and scie...

"Naturally, a deep-UV spectroscopy lab has to have  cool purple lights." -Joby This week on the SPIE Faces of Photonics series, we interviewed UK native Joseph Razzell Hollis. Joseph, better known as Joby, is a postdoc at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), working on the Mars 2020 rover mission. His passions include knitting, Raman microscopy, and advocating for greater LGBT+ inclusivity in STEM. He is a trustee for Pride in STEM , an award-nominated charitable trust that supports LGBT+ people in the STEM field. In addition, you can find Joby tweeting from the @LGBT_Physics account , which celebrates diversity in science. Enjoy the interview with Joby, and don't forget to follow him on Twitter! 1. Tell us about when you first became interested in optics and photonics. I studied chemistry as an undergraduate, and it was synthesising quantum dots that made me realise the incredible beauty of how atoms and light interact. It was all downhill from there! I quickly be...