Skip To Content

In this issue: OSA mourns the loss of Charles Townes, OFC discount opportunities, upcoming meetings and more!

View this email in your broswer.
OSA: Light in Focus
OSA Member News

Your source for OSA news and events

February 2015

IYL 2015 opening ceremony
OSA.org Member Directory OPN Renew Membership My Account
Follow Facebook Twitter Linked In RSS

Happy New Year

In Memoriam

OSA Mourns the Loss of Physics Pioneer and Inventor

Charles TownesThe Optical Society expresses its condolences at the loss of Charles Townes, OSA Fellow and recipient of the Frederic Ives Medal (1996). Townes was a luminary in the field of optics and photonics and was highly regarded by colleagues and the numerous students he mentored. He died on 27 January 2015 at the age of 99.

Townes served on a number of scientific committees advising governmental agencies and was active in professional societies. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Townes received the Templeton Prize, for contributions to the understanding of religion, and a number of other prizes as well as 27 honorary degrees from various universities.

Townes revolutionized the optics industry. While he will be missed greatly, his contributions to the field will continuously provide guidance in the trade.
more

Opportunities

Take Advantage of Advance Registration for OFC and Save

22 – 26 March 2015
Los Angeles, California, USA
Advance Registration Deadline: 23 February 2015

Don’t miss the world’s largest conference and exposition for optical communications and networking professionals. With over 520 peer-reviewed technical presentations and more than 120 invited speakers, the comprehensive program covers the technological breakthroughs and all the important topics in the field today. The exposition features over 550 participating companies showcasing the newest products.
more

Special Discount Offer for OSA Members attending OFC

If you plan to attend OFC, stop by the OSA booth in the registration area to renew your membership. You will receive a 50% discount* on the cost of annual membership dues, a $67 value! (This special offer applies to a one-year Individual Membership only.)
more

CLEO Innovation Awards Deadline Approaching — Apply Today and Be Recognized for the Best in Innovation

Innovation awards winners Submission Deadline: 23 February 2015

You are invited to submit your most innovative products and services for review by our esteemed judges. Winners will be recognized during CLEO — the premier laser conference and expo — and will receive extensive promotion through various OSA and Laser Focus World marketing vehicles. The CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Awards were established to honor companies that have made major contributions that advance the field of optics and photonics through recently launched products and services.
more

Do You Have a License Ready Technology? Submit to the CLEO Technology Transfer Program

CLEO, Technology Transfer Program: 14 May 2015
San Jose, California, USA
Submission Deadline: 23 February 2015

You are invited to submit a presentation for the Technology Transfer Program. The program will include a Pitch Panel for entrepreneurs to showcase their technology, explain why it's valuable and discuss the next steps to commercialization. The program will also continue to provide a Tutorial for those who want to learn more about the licensing process — funding, entrepreneurship, technology transfer and intellectual property. In addition, organizations will feature their license ready technologies at tabletop displays in the exhibit hall.

Submissions are encouraged from universities, government laboratories, start-ups and established companies. Showcase your technologies to the Silicon Valley Venture Capital community and company representatives attending CLEO.
more

Apply to Attend the 2015 Siegman International School on Lasers

2 – 8 August 2015
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Amberg, Germany
Application Deadline: 15 March 2015

The Siegman International School on Lasers is a week-long program that exposes students to in-depth learning of lasers and their applications from internationally recognized academic and industry leaders in the field. This program consists of lectures, networking events, professional development programs, poster presentations and research sharing and brings together the top 100 student applicants from around the world.

The program was established in honor of Anthony E. Siegman, 1999 OSA President, founding board member of The OSA Foundation and widely known expert on lasers and optics. This program is co-founded by IPG Photonics and endowed by donors from around the world.
more

OSA President Philip Russell to Speak at 2015 Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics Symposium

Russell will deliver a “Forum Special Lecture” during the World Photonics Forum at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics (FIP), Duke University, USA from 9 – 10 March. The event will feature a roster of distinguished speakers, contributed papers and posters, a tribute to the International Year of Light and a pre-symposium open house to expose the latest in light-based science and technologies to the public. OSA is a proud sponsor of this event.
more

Frontiers in Optics: Call for Papers Open

18 – 22 October 2015
San Jose, California, USA
Submission Deadline: 25 May 2015

You are encouraged to submit a paper to the OSA Annual Meeting. There’s no better environment to present your work, with opportunities for direct feedback and networking with top players from around the world. Submit a paper, and play a role in your annual meeting.
more

Publications

In the February 2015 OPN: Augmented Reality, Integrated Photonics, OSA’s 2015 Fellows, and More

OPN Cover This month in Optics & Photonics News, you’ll find feature articles on a new technique to make 3-D "augmented reality" easier on the eyes; putting stimulated Brillouin scattering to work in integrated photonics; and OSA’s impressive new class of Fellow members for 2015. Also in the issue: columns on the role of scientists as social activists, the OLED-LCD display technology battle, and more.

Check out the issue.

 
Call for Papers: Applied Optics

Feature Issue: Optical Design and Testing 2015
Submissions Open: 15 March 2015; Submission Deadline: 15 May 2015

Call for Submissions: New Publishing Opportunity for Engineers

Applied Optics’ new feature, Engineering and Laboratory Notes (E&L Notes), are brief articles that feature the laboratory techniques and hands-on skills required for the design, analysis, fabrication, integration, alignment, and measurement of optical components and systems. E&L Notes is a unique way to publish observations from your engineering notebook in Applied Optics.

Why should you publish an E&L Note in Applied Optics?

  • To gain recognition for your company and attract new customers through exposure to a large global audience
  • To accelerate your career by having your article widely distributed in a high-quality journal with a long tradition of serving the community
  • To share lessons learned with the next generation of engineers or those who are new to the field

Learn more or submit a note.

Photonics Research to Be Indexed in Web of Science

The Optical Society is pleased to announce that Photonics Research, OSA’s partner journal with Chinese Laser Press (CLP) and the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM), has been approved to be indexed in Thomson Reuters' Web of Science™. All articles dating back to the first issue should appear in the database soon, and the Journal should get its first Impact Factor this summer.

Advocacy

Join OSA for Congressional Visits Day

OSA, along with its National Photonics Initiative (NPI) partners, are participating in the annual Congressional Visits Day taking place in Washington, D.C. on March 17 – 18, 2015. With so many new members of Congress, this is a great opportunity to establish a relationship with your Congressional offices and to educate your members of Congress on the importance of optics and photonics.

OSA will be participating in this annual event to talk about the importance of R&D funding, the NPI and discuss other relevant legislation such as the America COMPETES Act. Each participant will be placed on a combined society team based on your geographic region. There will be training on March 17 in Washington, D.C. and a reception that evening on Capitol Hill. On March 18, you and your team will visit your Congressional representatives. Society staff will schedule and coordinate your day and will escort you to all of your meetings.

Learn more here. To sign up to participate, visit the NPI website.

2015 OSA Advocate of Optics Recognition

U.S. Congressman Tom Reed (R-NY) was presented with the 2015 OSA Advocate of Optics recognition. Every year, the OSA Public Policy Committee chooses to recognize an outstanding public official, either domestically or abroad, who demonstrates leadership and efforts in support of the advancement of the science of light. Congressman Reed was chosen for his leadership in passing a key advanced manufacturing bill and for securing language in the bill on optics and photonics. The optics and photonics language in the bill helps to send a message to the Administration that optics and photonics are important to Congress and has the potential to lead to future opportunities through the Federal agencies that optics and photonics may not have otherwise had.

Past recipients of the Advocate of Optics recognition include: Isao Sugino (Japan), former U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Neelie Kroes and Antonio Tajani (European Union), U.S. Reps. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), Rush Holt (D-NJ), and Bill Shuster (R-PA) and U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Christopher Bond (R-MO).

Recommend a public official for the 2016 Advocate of Optics recognition by contacting the OSA Public Policy Team.

Industry

Photonics for Disaggregated Data Centers: 1-Day Immersion Workshop at OFC

22 March 2015
Los Angeles, California, USA

Disaggregated data centers allow the architect to pool the processing, memory, storage and networking into separate racks or rows, using them more efficiently for certain tasks. Attend this workshop for a deep look at the potential for photonic devices and networks in disaggregated data center architectures.

Two new speakers have just been announced: Yuval Bachar, Hardware Network Engineer, Facebook and Donald Faw, Principal Engineer/Staff Architect, Intel Corporation. View all speakers and the program.

Register to attend.

Attend OSA Executive Forum at OFC. Join 150+ Executives as They Discuss Network Technologies for a Profitable Business Strategy

OPN Cover 23 March 2015
Los Angeles, California, USA

Maximizing your technology investments and positioning your network for success is challenging when investments can take decades to pay off. Attend Executive Forum and join industry leaders from top companies as key innovations are assessed and profitable business strategies are fully debated. View the program and make plans now to attend.

Special discounted registration is available until 23 February. OSA Industry Development Associates Members can bring a customer or colleague for free.

Register to attend.

Exclusive Interviews with Industry Luminaries: Now Available for On-demand Viewing

OSA's Executive Speaker Series interviews are informal conversations with some of the most interesting and engaging executives in our industry. They respond to questions from C-Level peers, and share stories about their career paths, corporate observations and personal perspectives. Get personal viewpoints from top leaders in the optics and photonics field. Past interviewees include John Ambroseo, President and Chief Executive Officer, Coherent; Martin Seifert, President, Nufern; Milton Chang, Managing Director, Incubic, LLC and more!

Watch these recorded video interviews online now and get personal viewpoints from top leaders in the optics and photonics field. Just click the "Archived Interviews" tab.

more

Meetings

Upcoming Deadlines

Mark Your Calendars

OSA Journals

 

Recently Published Special Issues

In the News

IYL 2015 opening ceremony
The UNESCO Earth sphere and the Eiffel Tower during the IYL 2015 opening ceremony on 19 January in Paris, France.
—OSA Fellow and Director at Large, Xi-Chang Zhang, Rochester, N.Y., USA
Follow Facebook Twitter Linked In RSS
Image for keeping the session alive