Programs
DLS Symposium on Undergraduate Research
The 23rd DLS Symposium on Undergraduate Research was held on Monday, October 9, 2023 in conjunction with the FiO LS conference in Tacoma, WA. There were 46 presentations, all given by students reporting on projects they performed at 33 universities and research institutes. There were a few second authors to some submissions, so the total number of student presenters were 48. Twenty of the presenters were female, an impressive representation of 42%.
Last year’s 22nd DLS Symposium on Undergraduate Research, held in conjunction with the FiO LS conference in Rochester, NY on October 17, 2022, was held in person for the first time since 2019. This symposium was similarly successful, with 47 presentations given by 54 students from 45 universities and research institutes, and 33% female representation.
Over the years, the Undergraduate Symposia have brought over 850 students to the annual DLS meeting to present what are often the first research papers of their budding careers. In the past two years, the symposia brought together participants with students participating in a program launched by Optica called “Amplify Optics Immersion”. This program seeks to bring together Black physics and engineering undergraduate or graduate students to explore research and career opportunities within optics and photonics at the FiO LS meeting.
Student comments included: “The whole experience was great! It was great to be exposed to not only to the cutting edge research of optics and laser science professionally but meeting the students with similar interests was a huge plus.” “As a senior undergraduate student in physics who has, up until now, not had much professional experience in the field, it was an amazing opportunity for me to speak with both accomplished professionals and undergraduate students in my exact same position. It gave me a lot of insight into what my future might hold if I continue down this path and was also comforting in the sense that all of my peers were just as new to it as I was, but that we all shared a passion for our research which is what mattered the most.” “... the greatest benefit for me was to get some practice presenting my work in person in front of an audience of students and professionals close to my particular area of interest. It was also great to get to meet some physicists from industry and academia at the conference in general, and I met some people I'll definitely be contacting in the future about internships or opportunities.”
The Symposium is supported by DLS, NSF, Optica, AIP, the Society of Physics Students, Thorlabs, East Coast Optical Technologies, Photonics Industries, and students’ home institutions.
The Undergraduate Research Symposium has been organized for many years by Harold Metcalf, Stony Brook University, and he has been joined by co-organizer Samir Bali, Miami University, since 2019. We congratulate Hal or receiving the 2023 Optica Esther Hoffman Beller Medal for his outstanding mentorship of undergraduate research students and for organizing the Undergraduate Research Symposium at FiO LS.
Top