It's been our pleasure to be your 2019 OFC General Chairs, and we hope you enjoyed this year's event.

OFC convened nearly 15,400 attendees from around the world to celebrate successes, debate new opportunities and push the boundaries of innovation. The show boasted 683 exhibitors on a floor encompassing 189,607 net square feet (500,000 gross square feet). Overall, the OFC exhibit served as a platform for important industry announcements, including developments in coherent DWDM networking, silicon photonics and 400ZR advancements.

Revisit  conference highlights

OFC is the place to make major announcements because the whole industry comes together," stated Yves LeMaitre, Chief Strategy Officer, Lumentum. "Whether you're working in data centers, telecom networks or access networks, all optical technologies for communications are here."

 We look forward to seeing you at the 2020 OFC in San Diego!

The National Photonics Initiative, an optics and photonics advocacy alliance co-sponsored and co-founded by OSA, brought over 20 academic and industrial partners to Washington in late February to urge the U.S. Congress to greatly increase funding for quantum information science and technology, following passage in December 2018 of the National Quantum Initiative Act. Participants met with members of Congress and their staff to discuss this exciting area of research.

Left to right: Mark Ritter, IBM; James Goeders, Honeywell; and David Lang, OSA on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on 26 February.

Name: Charles Middleton
Title: Principal Investigator, Photonics
Organization: Harris Corporation
Location: Florida, USA

The president of the OSA Student Chapter at the International School of Photonics (ISP), Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), contacted me a few months ago about coming to speak through the OSA Traveling Lecturer program. I've always enjoyed the opportunity to speak to students, and I was excited about the idea of visiting India for the first time. Since I work for a defense contractor in the United States, there was a significant amount of paperwork and approvals required before I could accept the invitation. But I was convinced it would be worth the effort.

When I arrived at the airport in Cochin, I was greeted by several officers from the student chapter. I had expected that the student chapter would be of small or modest size, maybe a dozen students or so. But ISP has around 100 student members! As one of only a few schools in India with degrees in Photonics, and the only one offering an integrated MS degree, ISP attracts an impressive and diverse group of students. The faculty, chapter officers, and students I interacted with displayed excellent technical knowledge, enthusiasm for our chosen field, and hospitality.

It was an experience I'll share proudly for many years, to visit this excellent school, experience some of Indian culture, and hopefully share a new perspective with so many talented, aspiring photonics students. The long flights and even longer approval and post-travel paperwork were only small inconveniences, and I'm very grateful to the OSA Traveling Lecturer program for enabling this impactful and memorable experience.

Call for Nominations - OSA Honorary Member

Honorary Membership is the most distinguished of all OSA Member categories, and is awarded to individuals who have made unique, seminal contributions to optics and photonics. Any OSA Member may nominate a colleague. To submit a nomination, email a 1-page statement of support for the candidate to awards@osa.org by 1 May.
Living Honorary Members include: Arthur Ashkin, Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Joseph W. Goodman, John L. Hall, Theodor W. Hänsch, Stephen E. Harris, Robert W. Hellwarth, Nick Holonyak, Donald B. Keck, Herwig Kogelnik, John C. Mather, William D. Phillips, David J. Wineland and Amnon Yariv.

Call for Nominations - Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award

Nominations for the Paul F. Forman Team Engineering Excellence Award are due 10 July. This is a great opportunity to highlight the value and importance of engineering teams! 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.

Congratulations OSA Award and Medal Winners

We congratulate the following the 2019 recipients of OSA Awards and Medals: 

Max Born Award
Govind P. Agrawal, University of Rochester, USA 
For sustained distinguished contributions to physical optics through innovative research on lasers, fiber-optical communications and nonlinear optics

Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize
Juergen Czarske, TU Dresden, Germany 
For seminal contributions to the field of digital interferometric and holographic sensors and their commercial applications

Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award
Allister I. Ferguson, University of Strathclyde, UK 
For extraordinary leadership creating major international optics and photonics research centers and programs that support the global optics and photonics community

Adolph Lomb Medal
Laura Na Liu, University of Heidelberg, Germany 
For seminal contributions to nano-optics, three-dimensional optical metamaterials, as well as interdisciplinary scientific work regarding the development of DNA nanotechnology-based dynamic plasmonics

C.E.K. Mees Medal
Bahram Javidi, University of Connecticut, USA 
For pioneering multidisciplinary contributions to information-optics with diverse applications in bio-photonics, 3D imaging and displays, photon-counting imaging and cyber-physical security

William F. Meggers Award
Michael D. Morse, University of Utah, USA 
For pioneering systematic studies of small transition-metal-containing molecules, including precise measurements of bond energies by the discovery and exploitation of sharp predissociation thresholds in highly congested electronic spectra

The organizers of the 2019 OSA Advanced Photonics Congress want to ensure a meeting experience that is relevant, current and of professional interest to attendees. To assist in developing the technical program, organizers are soliciting feedback for topics to be considered for congress symposia. Selected topics will be presented at the next congress, which will be held 29 July - 1 August in Burlingame, California, USA.

Application Deadline: 30 March 2019

The 2019 Siegman International School on Lasers will take place 27 July - 3 August in the beautiful Rochester, NY, USA. Jon Zuegel (Fellow) along with the University of Rochester and the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) are excited to host a 100 graduate students who will learn from visionaries in the field.

Applications are open and we encourage any student to apply by visiting apply.osa.org.

Application Deadline: 30 March 2019

Are you a PhD student, early-stage researcher, entrepreneur, Bachelor's, or Master's student looking for a new field of opportunity in technology. Apply to attend this new school that will provide an A to Z process of building a modern global communication network, with a focus on submarine system design, submarine powering, cable technology, planning, marine operations, and maintenance. This new school is in partnership with Google and the OSA Foundation.

[more]

Application Deadline: 15 April  2019

Education & Training in Optics & Photonics (ETOP) is a biennial conference that brings together educators from around the world to share information about the practice of teaching optics and photonics at all levels. It is the goal of this international conference to bring together leading optics and photonics educators from all levels and orientations to discuss, demonstrate and learn about new developments and approaches to teaching in these fields.

To ensure world-wide coverage and participation, co-sponsors, ICO, SPIE, OSA and the IEEE Photonics Society, welcome and encourage their affiliated sections, chapters and other interested organizations to host future ETOP conferences.

Please fill out the application, via the button below, to apply to host a future ETOP conference. The co-sponsors currently are accepting applications for years 2021 and 2023.

OIDA wrote in the December 2017 OIDA newsletter and last July/August in OSA's Optics & Photonics News about the overlap of artificial intelligence (AI) and optics. It's not very different from human biology: the retina performs some image processing where the image is captured, and the cerebral cortex (the grey matter) does the rest, with the optic nerve and the brain's white matter providing interconnections. In machine intelligence, the optical sensor may perform some AI-centric processing, while optical interconnects carry information to the cloud and within data centers, where much of the higher level processing can be done. The AI-ready optical sensor can reduce the data uploaded to the central processor, just as the retina reduces that load to the brain through the optic nerve.

[more]

27 June, San Jose, California, USA

Join experts from leading companies and learn effective best practices, create new solutions for common industry challenges and gain the connections and technical education you need to drive your company-and your career-forward in the evolving autonomous vehicles market.

This event will cover all the hottest topics in sensing transport applications.

• What is needed from the photonics industry? Which are the problems that optics and photonics can have the greatest impact on?
   
• What are the enabling technologies that have the most promise?
   
• What are the bottlenecks or "showstoppers" among photonics technologies today, and potential solutions?

OIDA's Forum on Optics in Autonomy will be held in conjunction with the OSA Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress and the Sensors Expo & Conference, which is the largest gathering of engineers and engineering professionals involved in sensors and sensing-related technologies. More than 6,400 professionals will gather from across the nation and 40+ countries to explore today's sensor technologies and find the solutions to tomorrow's sensing challenges. The 2019 Sensors Expo & Conference will host 300+ exhibitors on the Expo Floor, leading experts from the industry in the most comprehensive sensor-focused conference program and unparalleled event features and networking opportunities. (There is an additional registration fee for the Sensors Conference technical program and for the OSA Optical Sensors and Sensing Congress.)

Learn more about the OIDA Forum on Optics in Autonomy.

29 September - 2 October, Austria Center Vienna, Vienna, Austria

This 3-day meeting focuses on two main topic areas - Materials Processing and Applications for High Power Lasers. At LAC, you'll be immersed in an innovative learning environment that introduces new, groundbreaking information, offers insightful knowledge, showcases cutting-edge products, and engages your active participation in important debates and discussions.

Chairs:

View the submission categories and submit by 12 June. Exhibit space is also available. Learn more and download the exhibitor prospectus.

Applied Optics
Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging 2018

Applied Optics and Journal of the Optical Society of America A
Digital Holography and 3-D Imaging 2018
 

Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Quantum Key Distribution and Beyond

Optics Express
Photonic Technologies for Autonomous Cars

Biomedical Optics Express
Feature Issue: Recent Progress in Optical Probing and Manipulation of Tissue
Submission Deadline: 5 April 2019
Editors: Kirill Larin (Lead), David Sampson, Alexander Priezzhev, and Dan Zhu

Journal of Optical Communications and Networking
Feature Issue: Low-Margin Optical Networks
Submission Deadline: 25 March 2019
Editors: Yvan Pointurier (Lead), Jean-Luc Augé, Martin Birk, and Manos Varvarigos

Journal of the Optical Society of America A
Feature Issue: Classical Optics in France
Submission Opens: 15 April 2019; Submission Deadline: 1 June 2019
Editors: Yannick Berthoumieu (Lead), Christine Fernandez-Maloigne, David Alleysson, Sylvain Gigan, and Olivier Haeberlé

Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Feature Issue: Laser Filamentation and Applications
Submission Deadline: 1 May 2019
Editors: Shermineh Rostami Fairchild (Lead), Yi Liu, John Palastro, and Joe Peñano

Optical Materials Express
Feature Issue: Laser Writing
Submission Deadline: 1 April 2019
Editors: Maria Farsari (Lead), Alberto Piqué, and Koji Sugioka

Feature Issue: Bio-inspired and Bio-integrated Photonic Materials and Devices
Submission Opens: 1 June 2019; Submission Deadline: 1 July 2019
Editors: Xing Sheng (Lead), Li Gao, Young Min Song, Hu Tao, and Seok-Hyun Yun

Optica
Researchers Move Closer to Practical Photonic Quantum Computing - Finger Lakes Times
Source Article: Mapping and measuring large-scale photonic correlation with single-photon imaging 

Optical Materials Express
Single-laser tech prints color graphics on metal - New Atlas
Source Article: Laser coloration of metals in visual art and design

Thermally Painted Metasurfaces Yield Perfect Light Absorbers for Sensing, Solar, Stealth Technologies - Photonics.com
Thermally-painted metasurfaces yield perfect light absorbers for high-tech applications - Nanowerk
Source Article: Heat-induced perfect light absorption in thin-film metasurfaces for structural coloring [Invited] 

Optics Express
Researchers pinpoint promising approach for analyzing atmospheric particles from space - Phys.org
Source Article: Retrieval of volcanic and man-made stratospheric aerosols from orbital polarimetric measurements 

As a valued OSA Member, you receive a wide range of exclusive benefits, including reduced prices for all OSA-managed meetings and conferences. Did you know that with just one meeting registration, membership pays for itself? Take advantage of your members-only pricing this year!

Meetings

OSA Biophotonics Congress: Optics in the Life Sciences
14 - 17 April 2019, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Calls for Papers

OSA Advanced Photonics Congress
29 July - 1 August 2019, Burlingame, California, USA
Abstract and Summary Submission Deadline: 27 March 2019

OSA Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science APS/DLS
16 - 19 September 2019, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
Abstract and Summary Submission Deadline: 15 May 2019

OSA Laser Congress
29 September - 3 October 2019, Vienna, Austria
Abstract and Summary Submission Deadline: 12 June 2019

Advance Registration

CLEO Conference and Exhibition
5 - 10 May 2019, San Jose, California, USA
Advance Registration Deadline: 4 April 2019

OSA Digital Holography and 3-D Imaging Topical Meeting
19 - 23 May 2019, Bordeaux, France
Advance Registration Deadline: 22 April 2019

OSA Optical Interference Coatings Conference
2 - 7 June 2019, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, USA
Advance Registration Deadline: 6 May 2019

OSA Optical Design and Fabrication Congress
10 - 12 June 2019, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
Advance Registration Deadline: 15 May 2019

OSA Imaging and Applied Optics Congress
24 - 27 June 2019, Munich, Germany
Advance Registration Deadline: 31 May 2019

OSA Sensors and Sensing Congress
25 - 27 June 2019, San Jose, California, USA
Advance Registration Deadline: 3 June 2019

OSA Applied Industrial Optics Topical Meeting
8 - 10 July 2019, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
Advance Registration Deadline: 10 June 2019

OSA Nonlinear Optics Topical Meeting
15 - 19 July 2019, Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii, USA
Advance Registration Deadline: 17 June 2019

Request OSA Meetings Information. >