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In this issue: OSA launches new publishing platform, CLEO:2015 wrap-up, 2015 Senior Member class announced, IYL opportunity, upcoming meetings and more!

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OSA: Light in Focus
OSA Member News

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May 2015

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OSA News

Stephen D. Fantone receives the Rochester Distinguished Scholar Award

OSA Fellow and 1996 - 2013 Treasurer, Stephen D. Fantone, Ph.D., received the Rochester Distinguished Scholar Award at the University’s 2015 Doctoral Ceremony on May 16, 2015. Fantone is the President & CEO of Optikos Corporation and currently leads the Strategic Planning Committee. He has served in key roles across the society, including the former Engineering Council, Land Medal Committee, Nominating Committee, Applied Optics and International Optical Design Conference Program Committees.

The Optical Society Launches New Publishing Platform

OSA is pleased to announce the launch of its new publishing platform, OSA Publishing. Formerly called Optics InfoBase, OSA Publishing incorporates the latest publishing and web technologies to ensure users can effectively navigate and discover content relevant to their work. Improved features include a clean, mobile-friendly layout, a robust full-text search engine, easy access to an article’s figures, tables, and equations, and more.

Want to learn more? Read the full press release and learn how to access the key features of the website. OSA welcomes your feedback on the site.

OSA Technical Group Leadership Voting is Now Open

OSA invites you to help choose the next leader for your technical groups! Members of select technical groups seeking a new leader can learn about each leadership candidate’s vision for their group and submit their vote now through 29 May 2015. OSA is looking for enthusiastic, self-motivated leaders that will ensure their technical group is active, engaging, and useful to its members. We hope you will take this opportunity to learn more about the leadership candidates for your technical group(s) and cast your vote.

The World's Premier Laser and Photonics Conference, CLEO: 2015, Concludes in San Jose

Six Nobel Laureates and Two Laser Luminaries Shared their Insights on Trends in Optics, Solid-State Lighting and Microscopy during CLEO Plenary Programs

The 2015 CLEO Conference and Exposition concluded today with 4,400 attendees, 226 exhibitors and 1,380 presentations from around the world. Conference and exhibition programming provided attendees with valuable insights into a broad range of topics such as optical microscopy for brain imaging, three dimensional printing and single-photon nonlinear optics.

During Plenary II, Dr. Steven Chu presented on Microscopy 2.0. "The invention of new imaging technologies is having a profound impact on biological sciences," stated Dr. Chu, 1997 Nobel Prize recipient in Physics and professor at Stanford University, California. "We are in the midst of a revolution in optical and electron microscopy - a revolution that will have an intense effect on biology, biomedicine and bioengineering for years to come."

Reflecting on his presentation, Dr. Shuji Nakamura, 2014 Nobel Prize recipient in Physics and professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, California, said: "Over the past 30 years LEDs have become universal in our daily lives, and I have been pleased to witness their growth. At CLEO: 2015, I spoke about laser lighting and how my research team is using a semiconductor device to produce coherent radiation in the visible or infrared spectrum when current passes through it. Laser lighting is on its way to replacing incandescent lightbulbs in the near future."

Complete details: CLEO News

Congratulations OSA Senior Members!

135 Optical Society Members have recently received the Senior Member designation! The 2015 class will be acknowledged on OSA.org, in a press release, in the June issue of Optics & Photonics News and will be honored during The Optical Society’s Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (18-22 October, 2015 in San Jose, CA, USA). Please join The Optical Society in congratulating the new class of Senior Members!

Help OSA Recognize Engineering Excellence

The Optical Society is seeking nominations for the Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award. Named in honor of Paul F. Forman, the award recognizes technical achievements such as product engineering, process and software development, and patent development, as well as contributions to society such as engineering education, publication and management, and furthering public appreciation of optical engineering. Team nominations are due 2 July 2015. The 2015 awards will be presented in October in San Jose, California, during Frontiers in Optics 2015. Take this opportunity to show the value and importance of the team activities in your organization!

The Marconi Society, Paul Baran Young Scholars Nominations

Submission Deadline: 30 June 2015

Please help the Marconi Society identify outstanding Young Scholars. Established in 1974 to honor Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel laureate who invented radio (wireless telegraphy), along with the annual Marconi Prize given to a living scientist or scientists whose contributions in the field of information and communications science have benefited mankind, the Society recognizes young scientists and engineers with the potential to make game-changing contributions in the field of communications and the Internet. The Marconi Society is now seeking nominations for the 2015 Paul Baran Young Scholar Awards, which will be presented in London on Oct. 20th at the Royal Society. Young Scholars receive a $4000 cash prize plus $1000 in expenses to attend the event. They gain well-deserved recognition, and meet and network with some of the industry's best-known scientists and engineers.

National Photonics Initiative Update

Alan Willner, 2016 OSA President, has become chair of the National Photonics Initiative (NPI) Steering Committee. Tom Baer, 2009 OSA President, completed his term as chair at the end of March. Tom’s service to the NPI, both as steering committee chair and as a participant, has played a major role in propelling the NPI to the success it is today. Tom will remain active in the NPI by continuing to chair the NPI Photonics Industry Neuroscience Group (PING).

Opportunities

Attend the Imaging Optical Design Technical Group Workshop this June

Join the Imaging Optical Design Technical Group for a special workshop at the Imaging and Applied Optics Congress on Tuesday, 9 June 2015. The workshop will bring together Dr. Amit Ashok of the University of Arizona, Dr. Andrew Wood from Qioptic Ltd, and Dr. Kenny Kubala of FiveFocal LLC, for a focused discussion on what computational imaging can do for traditional optical design.

Following the presentation, which will begin at 12:45 p.m., members are invited to participate in a group discussion and exchange ideas on the topic with their fellow conference attendees. Space is limited, so RSVP for this workshop as soon as possible to TGactivities@osa.org.

International Year of Light 2015: Share Your Story

The International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL 2015) is a global initiative that will highlight to the citizens of the world the importance of light and optical technologies in their lives, for their futures, and for the development of society. A resolution declaring 2015 the International Year of Light was passed by the full United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 2013. The Optical Society is one of nine founding scientific organizations that worked to obtain the formal declaration.

In support of IYL 2015, we are asking our members for their IYL stories to share.  Simply submit interesting, educational or fun facts about optics, photonics or the science of light. OSA will pick the best entries to on our social media channels. Up to 10 submissions per person are allowed, and should be geared toward a non-technical audience and demonstrate factual information. Submissions may include a video or photo.

Submit your IYL news to: msalemno@osa.org by 31 May 2015. Be sure to check out the Legal Terms and Conditions.

Publications

In the May 2015 OPN: Lasers Past, Present, and Future

OPNThis month in Optics & Photonics News, read features on the eventful second half of the life of laser pioneer Charles Townes; how to make a laser from an aerosol droplet; the attosecond light sources that are illuminating the motion of electrons in chemical reactions; and more.

Check out the issue.

Industry

Attend OSA Entrepreneur Training Workshop for Startups "How to Communicate 'HighTech' to the Market" at Laser Munich

12:00 — 17:00, Wednesday, 24 June 2015 at Laser Munich

Register now to attend this special OSA Industry Development Associates workshop which gives you hands-on advice on how to effectively present high-tech products and technologies to prospective markets. You will learn how to set up an efficient integrated communication strategy, and what you have to do to implement this strategy and to meet prospective targets. Two experts with a proven track record in the field share their experience and provide tips on how to communicate complex technologies efficiently. Who should attend? Startup founders, scientists, engineers, and PR/marketing professionals with an interest in technology transfer. Register by 27 May and Save!

OSA Industry Development Associates Presentation at Optics in the Life Sciences Congress

The Industry Program, "Making the Connection between Biomedical Industry Products and Current Research in Optics and Photonics" at the Optics in Life Sciences Congress featured Eric Buckland, CEO of Bioptigen as the keynote speaker, followed by a panel of key individuals from the academic, industrial, financial and agency funding world. They shared and lead discussions on the challenges that exist when taking scientific knowledge from the bench-top to the patient-side. The program wrapped up with a Bright Ideas Pitch Panel Luncheon sponsored by Hamamatsu. Thanks to all who participated and helped organize this industry event.

CLEO Innovation Award Winners Announced

Winner of the Analytical Instruments or Systems Category:
AUREA Technology - Booth 1435
For the first "all-in-one" Time Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) analyzer with fully integrated picosecond laser source and novel time-to-digital-converter technologies that delivers ultra-high photon detection efficiency and low-dark-count-rate within the 400 nm to 1700 nm range in a compact package with an easy to use customer-centric graphical user interface.

Winner of the Lasers and Sources Category:
Northrop Grumman - Cutting Edge Optronics - Booth 2312
Gigashot-HE all-diode-pumped Joule class laser system
The Gigashot-HE diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) Nd:YAG laser system outputs more than 2 J of 532 nm energy in each sub-10 ns pulse at 10 Hz with a near-field flat-top beam profile. Using long-life QCW pump laser diodes operating for more than 10 billion shots, this system is scalable to repetition rates greater than 100Hz and is an ideal pump source for Ti:Sapphire amplifiers, OPOs and OPCPAs, and for terawatt/petawatt high-energy science.

Winner of the Optical Components Category:
Inrad Optics - Booth 1917
Stilbene crystals for neutron detection
For the development of large single crystals of stilbene--an organic scintillator that, when coupled with a photodetector, has superior performance for applications in fast neutron detection in a gamma background--and the successful transition of stilbene crystal growth methods from an R&D setting into low-rate commercial production.

Meetings

You’re Invited to Attend the DGaO Annual Meeting

26 – 29 May 2015
Brno, Czech Republic

The Czech and Slovak Society for Photonics and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für angewandte Optik (DGaO) invite you to take part in the 116th DGaO Annual Meeting. The following topics will be the focus of the conference: Precision Optics and Mechanics, Optical and Photonic Systems Design, Optical Metrology, Microscopy, Micro and Nano Photonics, Optical Image Processing and Biophotonics and Optofluidics. OSA Members are eligible for the discounted member registration rate.

OSA/JSAP Joint English-language Symposia

JSAP Autumn Meeting
13 - 16 September 2015
Nagoya Congress Center, Nagoya, Japan
Submission Deadline: 23 June 2015 (5:00pm, JST)

OSA members are invited to submit papers to the 2015 OSA/JSAP Joint English-language Symposia to be held during the JSAP Autumn meeting. Members are also able to register for the conference at low JSAP member rates. Travel support for students outside of Japan is also available. Learn more online or contact JSAP.

Upcoming Deadlines

Meetings Calendar

OSA Journals

Review Your Customized Alerts Today

If you previously signed up for customized email alerts on Optics InfoBase, they should have transferred over to OSA Publishing smoothly. However, OSA noticed some did not transfer completely over to the new website. So please take a moment to review your alerts. Additionally, if you signed up for Google alerts for any of our journals, it might be a good time to review and update those alerts as well. Apologies for the inconvenience of having to check these. Please contact OSA if you have any questions when reviewing your alerts.

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