Minutes of the October 2012 DLS Executive Committee Meeting
(from Anne Kelley, DLS Secretary / Treasurer)
DLS Executive Committee meeting draft minutes
Carson Room, Hyatt Regency, Rochester, New York
October 16, 2012
Attending: Carlos Stroud (chair), Henry Kapteyn (chair-elect), Steve Cundiff (past chair), Anne Kelley (secretary-treasurer), Anthony Johnson (councillor), Maria Allegrini, David Reitze
Carlos Stroud called the meeting to order at 9:17 am.
The minutes from the May Executive Committee meeting at CLEO were approved.
Anne Kelley presented the treasurer’s report. As of 8/31/12 the DLS account balance was $435,809 and it appeared likely that the Division would end up reasonably close to even at the end of the year. Income from CLEO will be approximately $24,000 for this year, but future CLEO revenue will be reduced by hotel and convention center cancellation penalties resulting from the decision to move CLEO from Baltimore to San Jose in 2013 and 2015. Currently the DLS share of that penalty is slightly under $20,000, but that number is likely to decrease as the reserved space is resold to other events. As of 9/2/12, unit membership stood at 1321 which is 2.64% of APS, considerably below the nominally required 3%. Ways to boost membership were discussed, including distributing our advertising flyer within our own institutions and to other institutions that should have large numbers of DLS members but don’t. The Schawlow fund received $5,200 in contributions this year and needs a bit more to be self-sustaining again. Henry will send an e-mail to the membership seeking one more round of contributions.
Anne reported on the Student Travel Grant and Child Care Grant programs. Six student travel grants at $500 each were awarded for FiO/LS, and one child care grant at $450 was awarded for the New Laser Scientists Conference. Demand for the child care grants in particular has been disappointingly low. The need to inform everyone earlier in the process (i.e. when speakers are invited) about child care grants was discussed, particularly for the NLSC. The Executive Committee voted to allocate funding for 2013 -- $5000 for student grants at each of CLEO and FiO/LS, $1000 total for child care grants at CLEO and FiO/LS combined.
Carlos Stroud gave a progress report on the DLS election. Newly elected members should be starting their terms at the end of this meeting, but no one has agreed to serve on the Nominating Committee to assemble a slate of candidates. Suggestions were made to Carlos, who will attempt to compose a committee. APS central chooses one member; presumably Kate Kirby should be contacted with suggestions.
Henry Kapteyn and Wayne Knox reported on the National Academy of Sciences’ Harnessing Light II report and what will be done with it. A key recommendation of the report is for a National Photonics Initiative (NPI), modeled after the 2000 National Nanotechnology Initiative which coordinated activities of a large number of federal agencies and industry to promote and fund nanotechnology research. The key is now to convince members of Congress and other policymakers of the need for such an initiative in optics/photonics. There was discussion about the “identity crisis” of optics and photonics, and that it’s hard to advocate for a major initiative simply by pointing out that optics are a part of almost everything (so are nuts and bolts). The challenge is to show a linear relationship between proposed inputs (e.g. funding for optics/photonics research) and desired outcomes (e.g. economic growth). In a vote taken by e-mail two days later, the EC voted to endorse the National Photonics Initiative, without any specific commitment of resources.
Hal Metcalf reported on this year’s Symposium on Undergraduate Research. Once again the number of participants (~50 students) set a record. The student talks were excellent, and the talks and poster sessions were attended by a number of distinguished visitors (plenary speakers and others). Although last year’s symposium went slightly over budget because of the increased student registration fee, this year OSA reduced the fee to $140, and it is expected to stay within budget. However, additional corporate sponsors are needed and there was discussion about possibilities and how to approach them. The EC voted to allocate $8,000 for SUR next year.
Peter Delfyett and Dan Gauthier, program chairs for the 2013 Laser Science meeting in Orlando, gave a status report. They have met with their FiO counterparts and with David Villeneuve, one of this year’s chairs, about choosing symposium organizers and coordinating activities. To maintain continuity from year to year it is expected that most of this year’s symposium topic titles will be kept, letting the symposium organizers determine the emphasis. Henry and current vice-chair Toni Taylor should confer on choosing the 2014 chairs, formally chosen by Henry. The EC voted to allocate $12,000 to fund the 2013 Laser Science conference.
A report from Nora Berrah on the APS International Travel Grant Program was discussed. DLS initially agreed to support this program for two years, and will have to decide whether to continue this support. The initial funding commitment was made in Spring 2011, so this should be revisited at next spring’s meeting.
Henry Kapteyn reported on the DLS invited session at next year’s March meeting, “New laser techniques for imaging and probing at the nanoscale” with five speakers. Everyone invited to speak accepted the invitation within 24 hours. Toni Taylor should be arranging next year’s session. It was noted that the membership status of all invited speakers should be checked and they should be asked to join DLS if they are not already members.
Henry Kapteyn discussed the establishment of a DLS thesis award. Many of the other divisions have such awards, generally supported by endowments. However, it was suggested that we start ours without an endowment, instead funding a small award from our base DLS funds. Students submit a CV and thesis summary, then finalists travel to the Laser Science meeting and present their talks in a special session, and a committee chooses the winner. Henry will check with APS about whether we can do this without an endowment to support the award. The EC voted to allocate $2,000 per year for 2013-2015 for this award, pending APS approval.
A report on the Distinguished Traveling Lecturer program from Rainer Grobe was discussed. Members agreed that the program is valuable, but that addition of new DTLs might be useful. Several names were mentioned, and Wayne Knox agreed to serve as a DTL. There was discussion of how to publicize the program better to candidate schools. Hal Metcalf’s large mailing list for the Undergraduate Research Symposium was suggested, as well as asking successful schools how they found out about the program.
Chad Stark, OSA meetings manager joined the committee for a discussion of Laser Science 2012 and beyond. The numbers of papers have been fairly constant over the past 5-6 years including this year. Next meetings are in Orlando 6-10 Oct 2013, Tucson 19-23 Oct 2014, San Jose 18-22 Oct 2015, and Rochester 16-20 Oct 2016. CLEO will be held June 9-14, 2013 in San Jose and will also be in San Jose for 2014-2016.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:30 pm.