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Frontiers in Optics kicks off in earnest
The opening day of this year’s Frontiers in Optics (FiO) conference was dominated by a packed morning plenary session where the speakers included NASA’s John Mather as well as Anton Zeilinger from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Mather’s talk tackled a wide range of issues and was entitled “From the Big Bang to the Nobel Prize and on to James Webb Space Telescope” while Zeilinger discussed “Photonic Entanglement and Quantum Information”.
In the afternoon, delegates faced a tough decision between the first in a line of Special Symposia versus a range cutting-edge research presentations. The Special Symposium was entitled “Schawlow-Townes Symposium on 50 Years of the Laser”.
2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the classic paper by Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes (Infrared and Optical Masers Phys. Rev. 112, 1940) that ushered in the age of the laser. First to speak was Townes himself on the early history and the development of the laser. He was followed by invited presentations delivered by some of today’s pioneers in laser science including Nicolaas Bloembergen, Anthony Siegman and Steve Chu.
Four Optical Society (OSA) Student Chapters and Local Sections received awards at Frontiers in Optics (FiO) today.
“Student and local section programs at OSA are thriving,” said Elizabeth Rogan, OSA executive director. “Recognizing the outstanding efforts of student researchers, student chapters and local sections serves as an opportunity to highlight examples of research and educational excellence to the wider optics community on both a local and international scale. OSA congratulates all the winners on their achievements.”
The 2008 winners of the OSA Excellence Awards are as follows:
Student Chapters
Small Group category (5-15 members): Moscow State University, Russia
Large Group category (16+ members): Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics, Ukraine
Local Sections
Small Group category (10-50 members): Long Island Local Section of OSA, USA
Large Group category (51+ members): New England Local Section, USA
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