2022 Student Leadership Experience

Saturday and Thursday are largely reserved for travel. The meat of the program will occur on Sunday, and supplemental programming will be embedded with FiO and occur Monday-Wednesday, primarily. 

No dedicated Student Leadership programming occurs on Monday. We invite you to check out some of these cool sessions, however:

9:00 - 12:30 Optica Member Lounge

8:00 - 12:30 FiO Sessions

This day is reserved for travel and no programming is currently scheduled.

15:00 Check in at hotel

This will be the fullest day of programming and represents the bulk of the content of the Student Leadership Conference

Location: Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center / Lilac Ballroom

7:00    Breakfast

8:45    Welcome

  • Liz Rogan, CEO, Optica
  • Terence Rooney, Director, Outreach Programs, Optica
  • Karl Mick, Student Coordinator, Optica

9:00    Christina Willis, Senior Analyst, ColdQuanta
           Session: Sustainable Networking for Scientists and Engineers

10:30   Coffee break

11:00    Araceli Venegas-Gomez, Founder and CEO, Qureca
            Session: The journey to entrepreneurship – a bumpy road

12:30    Lunch

14:00    Breakout: Transitioning from student to early career professional
             Optica Ambassadors and special guests

15:00    Jenn Cable, President, Thorlabs
             Session: A history of Thorlabs

16:00    Coffee Break

16:30    Breakout: Transitioning from student to early career professional
             Optica Ambassadors and special guests

18:00    Closing Ceremony

19:00 - 22:00    Student Party (Bar Bantam)

Don't forget your ID for the student party! Drinks, food, and dancing will be served

Additional programming held throughout FiO and designed with the student development experience in mind. These sessions are optional but worthwhile! All held in the Student Lounge on the Exhibit Floor.

10:00 – 10:30
Student chapter chit-chat

Karl Mick, Optica
Terence Rooney, Optica

Chapter gurus Karl Mick and Terence Rooney are here to field your queries! Want to start a chapter? Looking to maximize chapter benefits? Trying to transition your chapter leadership to incoming officers or seeking guidance on submitting an effective grant application? Then look no further!

11:30 – 12:00
Academia vs Industry

Optica Ambassadors: Linhui (Lynn) Yu, Alessandra Carmichael-Martins, Alexander Jantzen, Sangyeon (Fred) Cho, Richard Zeltner, María Viñas Peña

An open discussion regarding the career options in academia and industry and considerations on how to navigate them.

12:30 – 13:00
Inside-out the comfort zone

Antigone Marino, National Research Council of Italy (CNR)
Have you ever tried to identify the limits of your comfort zone? Often, without realizing it, we are the ones that somehow limit our professional growth. Entering and leaving the comfort zone is an art, that can often become a game to grow professionally!

13:30 – 14:00
Black in photonics meetup

Michael Williams, Boston Electronics
This informal meetup is to provide FiO student attendees the opportunity to meet fellow black optics students/scientists and foster community building, encouragement and support, personal and professional growth, and potential collaboration. 

14:30 – 15:30
Ask a mentor

Optica Ambassadors: Abubakar Adamu, Adam J. Fleisher, Brandon Buscaino Richard Zeltner, Fae Gholami, Sangyeon Cho

Swing by the lounge and connect with professionals from government, academia, and industry. This ‘anything goes’ session provides a forum for you to ask questions to help advance your career trajectory.

Additional programming held throughout FiO and designed with the student development experience in mind. These sessions are optional but worthwhile! All held in the Student Lounge on the Exhibit Floor.

10:00 – 10:30
Student chapter chit-chat

Karl Mick, Optica
Terence Rooney, Optica

Chapter gurus Karl Mick and Terence Rooney are here to field your queries! Want to start a chapter? Looking to maximize chapter benefits? Trying to transition your chapter leadership to incoming officers or seeking guidance on submitting an effective grant application? Then look no further!

12:30 – 13:00
Asians in optics

Sangyeon (Fred) Cho and Linhui Yu, Harvard Medical School
This program aims to facilitating the networking of Asian early career professionals and students in optics and photonics. We will discuss about the way of encouraging the Asian researchers’ and professionals’ engagement and collaboration within professional societies

14:00 – 14:30
Women in Optics: Challenges in optica and photonics careers - Thriving at all levels

Maria Vinas Pena and Linhui Yu, Harvard Medical School
Join us for a career development discussion with some of the OPTICA female luminaries on challenges professionals face in optics and photonics careers. The event's second half (this half) will be a networking session for attendees in the lounge. All are welcome.

14:30 – 15:00
Storytelling techniques for scientific talks

Rodrigo Benevides, ETH Zurich
One of the biggest challenges in science is to deliver your messages effectively, especially at large events such as conferences and symposiums. We will discuss how to use storytelling techniques to engage and captivate your audience during your scientific presentations.

15:30 – 16:30
Happy hour!

Come network with Optica staff, early career professionals, and other students over imported beers and pretzels. 

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This following session will be held in the Empire Lobby of the Convention Center.

19:30 - 21:00
Picture a Scientist!

Join us for a movie night with popcorn and beer! PICTURE A SCIENTIST is a feature-length documentary film chronicling the groundswell of researchers who are writing a new chapter for women scientists. A biologist, a chemist and a geologist lead viewers on a journey deep into their own experiences in the sciences, overcoming brutal harassment, institutional discrimination, and years of subtle slights to revolutionize the culture of science. From cramped laboratories to spectacular field stations, we also encounter scientific luminaries who provide new perspectives on how to make science itself more diverse, equitable, and open to all.

Read more about the film.

No dedicated Student Leadership programming occurs on Monday. We invite you to check out some of these cool sessions, however:

9:00 - 17:00 Optica Member Lounge

8:00 - 18:00 FiO Sessions