In Milton Chang’s widely read column in the October (October, p. 71; www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/308752), he responds to the question, “Of the three universities that offer optics degrees, which one would you recommend for my Ph.D.?” Dr. Chang wisely sidestepped a complete response and I hope one of the reasons is that there are more than three universities in the United States that offer Ph.D. degrees in optics. I assume that the questioner was referring to Central Florida, Arizona, and Rochester, as they are the oldest, largest, and most established optics degree institutions.
I am the director of the optics academic program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. We offer both master’s and doctoral degrees in Optical Science and Engineering. In the brief five-year history of the program at UNC-Charlotte, we have already graduated a number of Ph.D.s. While we are a young program with about 25 teaching and research faculty, we offer 17 graduate-level optics courses and average about $5 million per year in external optics funding, much of which is associated with our research and service arm, the Center for Optoelectronics and Optical Communications. If you wish to know more about our program please go to optics.uncc.edu.
Robert K. Tyson
Dept. of Physics and Optical Science University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
Editor’s note: For a complete directory of schools that offer degrees in optics, see www.opticseducation.org.
CORRECTION
The incorrect author name was displayed in the heading of the Comment column “Solar Electricity: its time has come,” by Wim C. Sinke, (November, p. 65; www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/311597). Laser Focus World regrets the error.
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