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November 2022

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Creating a Diverse, Inclusive Workplace
Image Credit: ICFO
In recent years, the scientific community has increasingly been forced to confront the inequities—based on race, ethnicity, disability, sex or other factors—that seem baked into the STEM world. But what does a good workplace, equitable and welcoming to all, actually look like? A feature article in the November issue of Optica's Optics & Photonics News (OPN) offered clues to some possible answers, through a focus on the efforts of three optics-related organizations to foster more diverse and inclusive environments.

Spain's Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), for example, has targeted specific, impactful efforts to improve gender equity and international diversity. The US-based optical firm Lumentum has worked to embed diversity considerations into its hiring, retention and promotion practices. And Fujitsu Network Communications, USA, has advanced a concept of Employee Inclusion Networks—grassroots groups that provide spaces to celebrate and promote inclusion and equity in the corporate culture.
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Imaging System Lays Groundwork for Tumor Removal
Image Credit: Christine M. O'Brien, Washington University in St. Louis
Researchers have developed a low-cost, portable imaging system that could help surgeons distinguish between healthy and cancerous tissue with higher precision when removing a tumor. Read more in this news release from Biomedical Optics Express.
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Researchers Fabricate Multi-component Beam Shaper
Image Credit: Shlomi Litman, Soreq Nuclear Research Center
Discover how 3D laser printing could make it possible to replace bulky optics with inexpensive microscopic devices by fabricating high-quality, complex polymer optical devices directly on the end of an optical fiber. This work is featured in a news release from Optics Letters.
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Endoscope Uses Bendable GRIN Lens for 3D Microscopy
Image Credit: Guigen Liu, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital
In this featured article from Optics Express, learn how researchers have created a flexible needle-like endoscopic imaging probe that can acquire 3D microscopic images of tissue and could improve biopsies and cancer treatment.
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US CHIPS and Science Act: How You Can Participate
Image Credit: Getty Images
NIST will issue the first announcement of funding opportunities in Feb. 2023. Currently, NIST is seeking public comment on various issues concerning upstream and downstream aspects of the semiconductor industry and deploying the financial incentives this month. This article provides a decent overview. NIST has a document that provides a summary of the official plan (really, the "plan for the plan," at this stage), including eligibility (see below). Note that the NIST CHIPS site recommends potential applicants register a Unique Entity Identifier in the meantime.

This is an excellent opportunity for our global community to shape the funding opportunity for the benefit of the optics and photonics industry. We want our industry to be visible in its centrality to semiconductor manufacturing and how it can help address the goals of the CHIPS act in the US. Foreign companies can submit comments, too.

Any company that's looking ahead to CHIPS money will want to check the eligibility requirements (reproduced below and available on the official source).
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Optica Announces New Board Members
Image Credit: Optica
We are pleased to announce that James Kafka was elected by Optica members to serve as the society's 2023 Vice President. Members also elected Julie Sheridan Eng and Ulrike Fuchs to serve as Directors at Large for 2023-2025. They will be joined by Aleksandra Boskovic, the newly board-appointed Director at Large for 2023-2025. The results were announced at Optica's Annual Business Meeting during the 2022 Frontiers in Optics and Laser Science (FiO + LS) conference held on 17-20 October. Kafka, Eng, Fuchs, and Boskovic will begin their terms on 01 January 2023. Thank you to our members for participating in this year's election.
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Community Matters
Image Credit: Optica
FIO Plenary Highlights: Optical Imaging
As featured in the 2022 November Optica blog, 2022 FIO Conference plenary speaker Monika Ritsch-Marte discussed opportunities in optical imaging.
 
Image Credit: Optica
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