SPIE’s New Slate of Officers for 2009

In addition to all the fun activities, great plenary presentations, and awesome technical conferences at SPIE Optics+Photonics in San Diego, the election results for SPIE’s 2009 officers and directors were announced last week by SPIE President Kevin Harding.

There’s a press release about it and a short article in SPIE Professional online. Here’s the skinny on the new officers and directors, all of whom are SPIE Fellows:

• Universidad Autonoma Professor Maria J. Yzuel (Spain) is the 2009 president
• Ralph B. James of Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) will serve as president-elect
• Dr. Katarina Svanberg of Lund University (Sweden) was elected 2009 vice president
• Brian Lula, president and CEO of PI Physik Instrumente (USA), will serve another term as secretary-treasurer

New members of the SPIE Board of Directors are:

• Jennifer Barton
• Donis Flagello
• Bahram Javidi
• Upendra Singh
• Hugo Thienpoint

Students from SPIE Chapters at Optics+Photonics

SPIE Student Chapter representatives,
originally uploaded by PhotoSynergy.

Many of the students who attended the SPIE Student Chapter Leadership Workshop on Saturday stayed for the exhibition and symposia at SPIE Optics+Photonics in San Diego.

In addition to attending conferences, presenting papers, and enjoying the comraderie of other optical scientists, several erected exhibits to show activities of their SPIE Student Chapters.

Students from Poland, Brussels, Singapore and elsewhere proudly exhibited in the San Diego Convention Center.

Newport and Spectra-Physics Present Research Excellence Travel Grants

Dozens of students at SPIE Optics+Photonics networked with industry and academic leaders at a Student Lunch with the Experts hosted by SPIE Student Services on Monday. During the lunch, they received career advice and tips from optics professionals, and 11 young researchers accepted awards to cover their travel to San Diego.

The Newport and Spectra-Physics Research Excellence Travel Awards are “one of the most valuable things we do as a company,” according to Newport’s Randy Heyler, senior director of Strategic Marketing, who presented the awards. He called the award recipients “the future of our industry.”
Newport Corp. develops innovative products and solutions for lasers, opto-mechanical components and mounts, optical filters, photonic instruments, and other systems and devices. Spectra-Physics is a leader in laser technology.

Winners of the student awards included four from Pennsylvania State University, Michael Motyka, Michael Stinger, Justin Liou, and Jyotsna Bhamidipati. Also accepting awards at the luncheon were Ozan Cakmakci from the College of Optics & Photonics at the University of Central Florida; Ashwin Wagadarikar, Duke University; Lane Martin, Missouri University of Science and Technology; Jonathan Suter, University of Missouri at Columbia; Ramzi N. Zahreddine from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Ignacio Gallardo, University of Texas at Austin; and Neetu Chopra, University of Florida.

More news from the SPIE event in San Diego.

 

Students at SPIE Optics+Photonics

Students at SPIE Optics+Photonics,
originally uploaded by PhotoSynergy.

An annual event at SPIE Optics+Photonics includes an SPIE Student Chapter Leadership Workshop for 100-200 students from all over the world.

This year’s all-day Leadership Workshop was held Saturday, 9 August, at the Marriott in San Diego, and other events for students and early career professionals were held on Sunday when the technical conferences officially began.

I took this photo with my iPhone, so it may not be too sharp, and it looks like some people standing on the right got cropped out. Sorry!

Choosing a Career in Optics

SPIE hosted numerous special events for students and early career professionals (ECPs) over the weekend as SPIE Optics+Photonics in San Diego got underway.

On Sunday about a dozen optics educators and other professionals offered 100 of these attendees career advice and tips on giving effective presentations; job interviewing; writing proposals and journal articles; and spreading the word about the importance of science education.

Panelists for sessions discussing career opportunities included

• Brigitte Wex, assistant professor of Chemistry at Lebanese American University
• Former SPIE President Malgorzata Kujawinska of Politechnika Warszawska

• Sanjay Krishna, associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico

• Marc Himel of Tessera North America

• David Wick of Sandia National Labs and a member of the SPIE Board of Directors

• Richard Youngworth of Light Capture

SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs addressed students and ECPs during a luncheon program, emphasizing the vast array of opportunities in the field of optics and photonics. He spoke of the growing need for – and shortage of ‑ technical professionals to solve climate, energy, health, manufacturing, and other problems affecting humanity.

“Solutions to these problems will require technical, economic, social, and political skills,” Arthurs said. “You can make a difference, and I urge you to do so.”

Over the weekend, SPIE also announced the winners of a Web site competition among SPIE Student Chapters. Stanford University’s SPIE Student Chapter took first place in the contest, and the International School of Photonics in India won a second place award. Honorable mentions went to Wroclaw University of Technology in Poland, the University of Texas at Austin, and the SPIE Student Chapter in Singapore.

The SPIEWorks Career Fair on Tuesday and Wednesday at the San Diego Convention Center is also aimed at assisting those early in their careers finding an employer. Top recruiters from Ball Aerospace, Cymer, GE, KLA-Tencor, Raytheon, Tessera, Lincoln Laboratory and other top photonics organizations will be recruiting at the Career Fair.

Representatives from SPIE Professional magazine and the SPIE Newsroom are on site covering the events.

Optics Students at SPIE Optics+Photonics

About 100 students from across the globe attended a leadership workshop at SPIE Optics+Photonics in San Diego today (Saturday, Aug. 9) to learn how to create and sustain an SPIE Student Chapter. They exchanged ideas about how to motivate colleagues at their respective universities to participate in outreach and professional development activities to further the science of light.

They also heard from Sanjay Krishna, associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico (USA), and SPIE President Kevin Harding, Optical Metrology Leader at GE Global Research in New York (USA).

Sanjay’s talk, The Journey Is As Important As the Destination, traced his early career path from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras to graduate school in Mumbai and later at the University of Michigan (USA) to his current faculty position. Krishna received the SPIE Early Career Achievement Award earlier this year and offered seven important lessons to illustrate his journey so far:

1. If things succeed, give everyone around you credit; if they fail, take the blame.
2. Avoid being rude or unprofessional in your personal behavior
3. Respect people who work for\with you
4. Be assertive, but not necessarily aggressive
5. Learn to laugh at yourself
6. Conduct a worse-case scenario analysis
7. Realize that hard work never killed anyone

Harding encouraged the students to make sure they sat in on at least one conference at SPIE Optics+Photonics that covered “something you know nothing about.” After all, Harding explained, the field of optics and photonics is all about interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.

Networking with SPIE leaders in San Diego was also high on student attendees’ agendas.

“Many new collaborations get started here,” said leadership workshop veteran Carlos Lopez-Mariscal who currently works in the Laser Cooling and Trapping Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Lopez-Mariscal attended SPIE student workshop several times when he was a student and established lasting relationships with others in the optics community in Mexico, Columbia, South Africa, Scotland, and elsewhere.