Donna Strickland elected OSA 2011 VP and 2013 president

Washington, DC--The Optical Society (OSA) is pleased to announce that its members have elected Donna T. Strickland of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada as its 2011 vice president. Three directors at large were also chosen during this year's election: Naomi J. Halas of Rice University, Eric Mazur of Harvard University, and Jannick P. Rolland of the University of Rochester's Institute of Optics.

By accepting the vice presidency, Strickland makes a four-year commitment to OSA's Board of Directors. As vice president, she will automatically become president-elect in 2012 and then the society's president in 2013, followed by a one-year term as past president.

Strickland has been an active OSA member for several years, including holding leadership roles in the society’s publishing, awards and meetings initiatives, as well as on the Board of Directors. Strickland served on the editorial board of OSA’s member magazine, Optics & Photonics News, and is currently a topical editor for OSA’s journal Optics Letters. She has chaired both the Archie McMahon and R.W. Wood prize committees and served on the program committee for OSA’s International Conference on Ultrafast Phenomena and is the program co-chair for OSA’s annual meeting, Frontiers in Optics 2010.

"Donna’s years of service to OSA have helped advance the society in many of our core initiatives--from editorial efforts and educational programming to meetings and board leadership," said Elizabeth Rogan, OSA CEO. "Donna is well-respected in the field of optics, conducting award-winning research at some of the top optics institutions in the world. She has the right combination of expertise, creativity, dedication and enthusiasm to lead the society in 2013."

Strickland received her B. Eng. degree in engineering physics from McMaster University in 1981 and her Ph.D. in optics from the University of Rochester in 1989. Along with her Ph.D. supervisor, Gérard Mourou, Strickland co-invented Chirped Pulse Amplification, which made it possible to amplify ultra-short pulses to unprecedented levels. From 1988-91, Donna was a research associate at the National Research Council of Canada. The following year, she was a physicist with the laser division of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. In 1992 she became a member of the technical staff of Princeton's Advanced Technology Center for Photonics and Opto-electronic Materials. Strickland joined the physics department of the University of Waterloo as an assistant professor in 1997, where she now serves as associate professor and associate chair of the department.

Along with Strickland, the new directors at large, Halas, Mazur, and Rolland, will begin their terms on Jan. 1, 2011, replacing three outgoing members of the Board of Directors. The new directors at large will hold their positions for three years.

SOURCE: OSA; www.osa.org/About_Osa/Newsroom/News_Releases/Releases/10.2010/ElectionResults.aspx
Posted by:Gail Overton

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