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March 2016 Newsletter

In This Issue

Letter from the Chair

It is a privilege to be chair of the APS Division of Laser Science. My term began at the end of our annual meeting in San Jose in October. This meeting is always stimulating with an outstanding technical program, the award of the Schalow Prize, and a vibrant symposium on undergraduate research. Harold Metcalf does an outstanding job organizing this symposium. Thank you Hal!

The recent addition of the Carl E. Anderson Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Laser Science has added to the excitement at the Laser Science meeting. This award was established in 2013 and endowed by Charlotte Anderson in 2015 in memory of her husband Carl E. Anderson. This year’s winner, Yang Zhao, was selected from an outstanding pool of applicants and finalists.

Congratulations to David Reitze, executive director, and the rest of the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) scientists for their recent observation of gravitational waves. Dave is an active member of DLS, most recently organizing the newly established dissertation award.

I’m also pleased to announce that Robert Boyd, of the University Ottawa, is the winner of the 2016 Schawlow Prize for fundamental contributions to the field of nonlinear optics. Please see the APS Schawlow Prize page for more details. The prize will be awarded at the 2016 annual meeting in Rochester NY, October 17-21.

Fellowship in the APS is a real honor. 2015 saw the elevation of seven of our members to Fellowship status within DLS: Andrea Alu (University of Texas, Austin), Hiroshi Amano (Nagoya University), Hou-Tong Chen (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Zhigang Chen (San Francisco State University), Stefan Hell (Max Planck Institute), Mackillo Kira (Philipps University Marburg) and Xiaoqin Li (University of Texas, Austin). Nominations for 2016 are due by Friday, April 1. Please see the APS website for additional information.

Meetings build community! The DLS sponsors a session at the APS March Meeting. The session this year, entitled “Advances in Real-Time Measurement of Structural Transformations,” will be held on March 14th in Baltimore. The speakers are Josh Vura-Weis, Michael Minitti, Bradley Siwick, Julie Biteen, and Philippe Wernet. CLEO will be held June 5th to 10th in San Jose. Our annual meeting will be held from October 17th to 21st, in Rochester NY. The Symposium on Undergraduate Research will be held as part of the meeting, and the third annual Carl E. Anderson Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation competition will be held. Our General Chair for the Laser Science meeting is Randy Bartels and the Program Chairs are Kevin Kubarych and Edo Waks. As a reminder, Student Travel Grants and Child Care Grants will be available for both CLEO and Laser Science. Please see the DLS home page for more details.

This year, for the first time, we solicited proposals for symposia to be included as part of the Laser Science meeting. Several outstanding proposals were received. This is your meeting and a solicitation for proposals will be a regular part of the meeting. We encourage interested members to be thinking of suggestions for the 2017 meeting. A solicitation for proposals will be forthcoming in the fall.

The success of the Division of Laser Science and of our annual meeting depends on you, the members of the division. Please feel free to send suggestions to the Executive Committee at any time. Both Joseph Haus (Secretary-Treasurer) and I will be happy to receive these and forward them to the entire committee.

Roseanne Sension
Chair, APS Division of Laser Science

Undergraduate Symposium, 2015

Group of StudentsThe fifteenth annual DLS Symposium on Undergraduate Research at LS-XXXI was held in San Jose, CA on Monday, 19 October, 2015. The Symposium has grown from ten presentations in 2001 to forty-five in 2015 on projects done at about 40 universities or research institutes. These Symposia have brought over 500 students to our annual meetings to present what are often the first research papers of their careers. One student commented, “I enjoyed the event greatly ... I enjoyed just being around other student physicists and talking physics with them. Also, I found People looking at postersthe talks interesting ... I think it was beneficial to present my research and discuss it in front of others as well as receive some ideas I did not think of before.”

An SPS student perspective on the Symposium can be found on the SPS Shoulders of Giants webpage and APS News’ Emily Conover covered the event in an APS News article. Programs, articles, further information, and photos from previous Symposia are on the DLS website. The Symposium was organized and arranged by Prof. Harold Metcalf of Stony Brook University and supported by the DLS, the students’ home institutions, NSF, Thorlabs, AIP, Photonics Industries, and East Coast Optical Technologies. Reported by H. Metcalf.

DLS San Jose 2015 Statistics

At the Frontiers in Optics | DLS conference in San Jose, 18-22 October 2015, there were 1,292 attendees, of which 425 were students. The Student Leadership Conference brought in 180 of these and there were 42 DLS students. We had 25 Laser Science sessions with 113 presentations. These included 62 invited speakers and 51 contributed presentations. As special events we also had the Laser Science Symposium on Undergraduate Research (see above), the Carl E. Anderson Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Laser Science and the LS poster session. There was also the DLS Annual Business Meeting and a DLS banquet, at which William E. Moerner gave an enjoyable talk.

Yang Zhao, 2015 Carl E. Anderson Division of Laser Science Dissertation Award Winner

Congratulations to Yang Zhao, Stanford University, for her thesis entitled “Bio-Inspired Nanophotonics: Manipulating Light at the Nanoscale with Plasmonic Metamaterials.” The Carl E. Anderson DLS Dissertation Award recognizes doctoral research in the Laser Science area and to encourage effective written and oral presentation of research results. Deadline for 2016 nominations: Wednesday, June 1, 2016.

Robert W. Boyd, 2016 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science Winner

Congratulations to Robert W. Boyd, University of Ottawa, “For fundamental contributions to the field of nonlinear optics, including the development of approaches for controlling the velocity of light, of quantum imaging methods, and of composite nonlinear optical materials.” The Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science is sponsored by the DLS. It recognizes outstanding contributions to basic research which uses lasers to advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical properties of materials and their interaction with light. Deadline for 2017 nominations: Friday, July 1, 2016.

Upcoming Meetings

APS April Meeting 2016, April 16-19, Salt Lake City, UT, p.d. submission: February 12, 2016
APS Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, May 23-27, 2016, Providence, RI, submission: Friday, January 29, 2016
CLEO, June 5-10, 2016, San Jose, CA, submission: 27 January 2016
Frontiers in Optics/ Laser Science, October 17-21, 2016, Rochester, NY

Join the APS and Division of Laser Science

Encourage students and colleagues in optics, laser physics or anyone who uses lasers. Benefits of joining the DLS and APS include:

  • Reduced registration fees at CLEO and FiO/LS
  • Eligibility for nomination as APS Fellow through DLS
  • Student travel grant program
  • Eligibility for visit from a DLS Distinguished Traveling Lecturer
  • Eligibility for the upcoming DLS Dissertation Award
  • International Travel Grant Program
  • Students can join APS (and DLS) for free in their first year of membership, and regular APS members pay just $8.00 to join the division.

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The articles in this newsletter represent the views of their author(s) and are not necessarily those of the Unit or APS.