Spotlight on inspiring the next generation of scientists and business leaders.
Each year, young scientists around the globe have the opportunity to hear and meet leading figures in the optics and photonics through the Optical Society’s (OSA) Traveling Lecturer Program. The program provides funding for OSA Student Chapters to host a guest speaker of their choosing annually. To assist universities in identifying speakers, the OSA maintains an online guest speaker directory of distinguished scientists and engineers who have volunteered to participate in the program. Lecturers may come from within or outside the host organization’s country.
“Students and young professionals benefit enormously from these smaller, more intimate programs where they can interact with renowned scientists,” said Kathryn Amatrudo, Deputy Senior Director, OSA Foundation, Membership and Education Services. “Because of funding challenges and visa requirements, Student Chapter members may not be able to travel to conferences and meetings where they could establish these connections. The OSA program provides an enriching experience that might not otherwise be possible.”
Student Chapters can choose from a diverse pool of speakers, or they may invite an OSA member who is not formally tied to the program. Scientists in the traveling lecturer directory range in experience from recent grads to emeritus professors and are affiliated with universities or companies around the world. The directory includes OSA Fellows as well as past and current members of the OSA Board of Directors. Host chapters along with the guest speakers are asked to provide a feedback report to OSA. The information received enables OSA to learn what works well in different settings and to continually improve the program.
Since its inception, the Traveling Lecturer Program has continued to expand each year, mirroring the growth in the number of OSA Student Chapters. OSA now has over 225 Student Chapters located in leading universities in 48 countries.
“The lecturers develop tremendous loyalty to the program,” says Alison Jordan, OSA Membership and Education Specialist. “They enjoy visiting local universities and they recognize the importance of these events to student audiences. The attendees represent the future of our profession, and the lecturers are, in a way, passing the torch.”
Some of the recent lectures presented are:
The Antioquia OSA Student Chapter in Medellin, Columbia, invited professor Dr. Pedro Andrés Bou from the Universidad de Valencia, Spain, to give three lectures about the development of new coherent pulse processing schemes, the control of the spatial and temporal properties of sub-100 fs light pulses by means of refractive and diffractive elements, and advances in the manufacturing techniques of diffractive optical elements and digital holography methods. Forty students and professors from different universities in Medellin attended, and Professor Pedro Andrés remained in the city for a week to work with the members of the Optics and Photonics group (GOF) from Universidad de Antioquia and visiting professors in the universities Nacional and EAFIT. “The program helped to strength the communication channel that already existed between Professor Pedro Andrés’s optical group and optical groups in Medellín,” reported Carlos Rios, Antioquia Student Chapter President.
James Leger, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering (IT) at the University of Minnesota, USA, visited The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Student Chapter in South Africa, where he gave a series of lectures on beam propagation, diffractive optics and coherent and incoherent beam combining. His lectures were attended by students, researchers and industry members. Student chapter members took Prof. Leger on a tour of their labs where he was able to see and discuss the work of individual students. CSIR Chapter Vice President Angela Dudley noted, “Students were given the opportunity to showcase their research to a well-established international researcher as well as listen to his lectures. The lectures were also attended by engineers from Carl Zeiss who were able to ask Prof. Leger some pressing questions regarding their research. Not only did our chapter members gain a lot from Prof Leger's lectures, but we hope our chapter had a positive impact on him and that he will encourage other well-established researchers to visit our chapter.”
The OSA Student Chapter at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) in Campinas, Brazil, invited Professor Thomas Brown from Rochester University, USA, to discuss "Perspectives on Silicon-based Photonics" as well his own research. The presentation was part of the SEMINATEC 2011 – VI Workshop on Semiconductors and Micro & Nano Technology, which included presentations by UNICAMP professor Gustavo Wiederhecker and others, and a poster section. Members of the community were invited to participate in the poster session, and the response from the general public was greater than expected. The presentations, photos, videos and booklets are available on the meeting website. Participating chapters and sections are encouraged to create videos of the lectures as a resource for the larger optical community. The videos are posted in the OSA Media Library and may be downloaded free of charge.
The OSA Foundation (OSAF) was established in 2002 to support philanthropic activities that help further the Optical Society's (OSA) mission by concentrating its efforts on programs that advance youth science education, provide optics and photonics education to underserved populations, provide career and professional development resources and support awards & honors that recognize technical and business excellence. The grants funded by the OSA Foundation are made possible by the generous donations of its supporters as well as the dollar-for-dollar match from OSA. For more information, visit www.osa-foundation.org.
Uniting more than 106,000 professionals from 134 countries, the Optical Society (OSA) brings together the global optics community through its programs and initiatives. Since 1916 OSA has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing educational resources to the scientists, engineers and business leaders who work in the field by promoting the science of light and the advanced technologies made possible by optics and photonics. OSA publications, events, technical groups and programs foster optics knowledge and scientific collaboration among all those with an interest in optics and photonics. For more information, visit www.osa.org.
GRACE KLONOSKI is the Senior Director, Foundation, Membership & Education Services for the Optical Society of America, 2010 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036; [email protected]; www.osa-foundation.org.