Newsletters

November 2020 Newsletter

In This Issue

Joint Letter from the Past and Current Chairs

Dear members of DLS,

We hope this letter finds you and your families well, in spite of the upheavals of 2020. It has been our pleasure to serve the Laser Science community as DLS chair in recent years.  This newsletter looks back to 2018, thanks to our new newsletter editor, Samir Bali, to ensure our APS fellows, Schawlow Prize winners, travel grant recipients, undergraduate symposium participants, and others are celebrated and documented.  Congratulations to all for the excellent work and vitality you bring to Laser Science!

These programs continue to exist thanks to the efforts of the people of the APS and the DLS.  Your executive committee members and volunteers drive the programs that support and celebrate our community.  Please encourage colleagues and students to join or renew their membership in the DLS.  Also, consider giving of your time, by running for office or volunteering to organize a poster competition.  Any and all efforts are welcome.  Please contact Randy Bartels, the current DLS Chair, if you are interested in offering ideas or learning of ways to help.


Yours sincerely,

Kristan L. Corwin, DLS Chair 2018-19
Rick Averitt, DLS Chair 2019-20

DLS Symposium on Undergraduate Research, 2018 and 2019

The eighteenth annual DLS Symposium on Undergraduate Research at the APS LS conference was held in Washington, DC on Monday, 17 September, 2018, and the nineteenth symposium was held at the same venue on 16 September, 2019. The Symposium has grown from ten presentations in 2001 to an all-time record high of fifty-eight in 2019 on research performed at about 50 universities and research institutes. During both years, an impressive number of presenters, about 40%, were female. These Symposia have brought nearly 700 students to our annual meetings to present what are often the first research papers of their budding careers.

Students commented: “I had an incredible experience at the symposium. ... The connections I made with the people I spoke to will undoubtedly be valuable as my professional career progresses, as these are the people I will be working alongside in the future. Thank you for hosting the event!”

“My experience with the DLS symposium was great. I was able to network with different individuals. The poster session allowed me to explore other topics in this field. I was able to see similar experiments that would open up other aspects of my research…I would like to thank you for letting me be involved in such an amazing experience.”

“The conference was an amazing experience, both personally and professionally. Several opportunities were provided to meet with peers (i.e. other undergraduates) as well as professionals (university faculty and reps from private companies). I was able to gain knowledge and advice from so many other people that I never would have met about things I had never even considered.”

“Not only was it a great opportunity to present my own research but it was also an opportunity to learn about other applications of optics. If anything, this conference confirmed my love for optics. This came at the right time ... currently applying for graduate school.”

“I enjoyed this conference so much! It was incredible to be able to present my work to students conducting similar research to mine. I’ve presented at a conference before but it was much smaller/more informal, and this was a completely new experience for me.”

“I especially liked how many of the grad students and other conference attendees stopped by the poster and talk sessions and engaged with the undergrads.”

The Symposia were supported by the DLS, OSA, students’ home institutions, NSF, AIP, the Joint Quantum Institute and Physics Frontier Center, the University of Maryland, Thorlabs, the Society of Physics Students, East Coast Optical Technologies, and Photonics Industries International. The Symposium in 2018 was organized and arranged by Harold Metcalf, Stony Brook University, and Chad Hoyt, Bethel University, and in 2019 by Harold Metcalf and Samir Bali, Miami University. It was also held virtually in 2020, with more details to come in a future newsletter.

2018 DLS Undergraduate Symposium student participants with advisors and organizers

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2019 DLS Undergraduate Symposium student participants with advisors, organizers, and guests

Student Travel and Childcare Grants, FiO/LS 2018 and 2019

2018 travel grant winners with DLS executive committee members at FiO/LS

The DLS student travel and childcare grants provide partial funding (up to $500/grant) for eligible DLS members to attend the APS March Meeting, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), and Frontiers in Optics/Laser Science meeting. In 2018, 13 grants were awarded for CLEO and 4 grants were awarded for FiO/LS. In 2019, 7 travel grants were awarded for the APS March Meeting (the first time this program was extended to this meeting), 18 grants at CLEO, and 6 grants at FiO/LS. Finally, 6 travel grants were awarded for the APS March Meeting in 2020, but unfortunately this meeting was cancelled. In addition, travel grants were not awarded for CLEO and FiO/LS 2020 since these meetings were held in a virtual format. Please keep checking the DLS webpage for updates on the travel grant program, as we hope to offer this again in 2021 for any meetings that are held in person.

“I am delighted that DLS continues to support the travel grants both for dependent care and for student travel,” said Kristan Corwin, former DLS Chair.  “As a former recipient of a childcare grant, and as an advisor of students who received both childcare and travel grants, I have benefited from these grants throughout my career, and am glad their impact continues”.

Student Poster Competition CLEO 2019

At CLEO 2019, APS-DLS sponsored a student poster competition, intended to attract students to join DLS. All students who participated were provided one year of free APS and APS DLS membership. Over 50 students participated in the event; 6 finalists were selected for a second round, and three best-poster awards (a certificate and $100) were given to the winners. In 2019, the winners were Elisa Gadded of INRS-EMT, Jiawei Shi from the University of Hong Kong, and Gareeyasee Saha from Georgia Tech. We hope to sponsor the poster competition again at CLEO 2021 if it is held in person.

DLS Carl E. Anderson Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Winners, 2018, 2019 and 2020

The Carl E. Anderson Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Laser Science was established in 2013 and endowed by Charlotte Anderson in 2015. The award recognizes doctoral research in the Laser Science area and encourages effective written and oral presentation of research results. Four finalists, selected from an outstanding pool of applicants, are presented their work in a special session at the Laser Science conference.

 

The 2018 winner is Sara Campbell. The four finalists were:

Sara Campbell, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Univ. of California, Berkeley, USA
A Fermi-degenerate 3D Optical Lattice Clock

Mark Dong, University of Michigan, USA
Quantum-well Diode Lasers for Frequency Comb Generation

Bin Fang, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA Manipulation of Photonic Quantum States: From Generation, Engineering, and Characterization to Storage and Retrieval

Pablo Solano, MIT, USA
Quantum Optics in Optical Nanofibers

 

The 2019 winner is Edoardo Baldini. The four finalists were:

Edoardo Baldini, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
 Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Collective Excitations in Strongly Interacting and Correlated Quantum Systems

Chitraleema Chakraborty, University of Rochester, USA Flatland Nanophotonics: A Study of Quantum-Confined Excitons in 2D Materials

Cong Chen, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA Attosecond Light Pulses and Attosecond Electron Dynamics Probed using Angle-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy

Chen-Ting Liao, JILA at University of Colorado Boulder, USA Exploring Ultrafast Quantum Dynamics of Electrons by Attosecond Transient Absorption

 

The 2020 winner is James Gaynor. The four finalists were:

Alexander Craddock, University of Maryland, USA
Rydberg ensemble for quantum networking

James Gaynor, University of Washington, USA Ultrafast vibronic phenomena directly revealed by multidimensional electronic-vibrational spectroscopy

William Perreault, Stanford University, USA Quantum control of cold molecular collisions using Stark-induced adiabatic Raman passage

Minjung Son, MIT, USA Carotenoid-mediated light harvesting in plants uncovered with ultrabroadband two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy

Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science Winners, 2019 and 2020

The Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science is sponsored by the DLS. It recognizes outstanding contributions to basic research that use lasers to advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical properties of materials and their interaction with light.

The 2019 winner is Steve Cundiff of University of Michigan, USA 
"For pioneering contributions to the
field of ultrafast laser spectroscopy, including optical multidimensional coherent spectroscopy applied electronic excitation in solids and atomic vapors, and the development and application of femtosecond frequency comb technology."

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In 2020 the winner is Shaul Mukamel of University of California, Irvine, USA 
"For expanding the boundaries and understanding of nonlinear optical spectroscopy and its application to chemical, biological and material systems."

DLS APS Fellows

Congratulations to the following DLS-nominated APS Fellows. 

2019: 

Noureddine Melikechi, University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA. 
For pioneering research leading to advancements in the use of lasers for diagnosing cancers, studying the geochemistry of Mars and for outstanding leadership in developing model programs and infrastructure to attract and engage diverse students into optical physics

Willie J. Padilla, Duke University, USA. 
For co-discovery of negative refractive index, the development of dynamic metamaterials and devices, and the development and understanding of metamaterial and metasurface absorbers in the microwave, terahertz, and infrared ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum

Stephen C. Rand, University of Michigan, USA. 
For outstanding contributions to precision optical spectroscopy, laser physics, and the exploration of ultrafast magneto-electric interactions at the molecular level

Nikolay Zheludev, University of Southampton, UK. 
For seminal contributions and international leadership in nanophotonics and metamaterials.

 

2020: 

Mario G. Silveirinha, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal. For pioneering and seminal contributions to the theory of metamaterials and plasmonics, in particular for the development of the concepts of near-zero index materials, and of nonlocal homogenization of metamaterials

Jeff Squier, Colorado School of Mines, USA. For seminal contributions to ultrafast optical technology, including the first ultrafast Ti: sapphire regenerative amplifier, for the development and application of ultrafast lasers to micromachining, eye surgery, and nonlinear microscopy, and for leadership in optical sciences at Colorado School of Mines

Lan Yang, Washington University in St. Louis, USA. For seminal contributions to non-Hermitian photonics, optical sensing, and nanophotonics

New Laser Scientist Meeting: 2018 and COVID-19 Update

The New Laser Scientist meeting (NLSC) was last held in Washington DC on Sep 20 – 21, 2018, organized by Thomas Weinacht of Stony Brook University, along with Brett Pearson (Dickinson College) and Dominik Schneble (Stony Brook University). The event is supported by the DLS and corporate sponsors. The purpose is to bring together scientists who use laser technologies in their research and who are in their first few years of a tenure track faculty or similar early-career position. It is a unique venue to present ideas to peers and network, talk with more senior scientists about forming and managing a scientific group, balancing work/life issues, research funding, and other topics encountered at this stage of a career.

Fifteen invitees participated. During the 2018 program, there were technical talks by the invitees and presentations by NSF (John Gillaspy) and DOE (Thomas Settersten) program directors, and Douglas Jahn from Coherent, Inc.

Participants were asked to provide a one-page proposal and presentation which were reviewed by the other attendees, in the style of proposal reviews for the National Science Foundation. Each proposal and presentation was reviewed by a panel of five attendees, very much in the style of National Science Foundation proposal evaluations. Participants were asked to prepare their summaries and presentations with the broad range of research activities and participants in mind. Their presentations were meant to be different from a regular conference talk and more of an introduction to a problem that they are addressing, some discussion of why it is important, and how they aimed to approach it.

NLSC 2020 was postponed due to the pandemic. The next meeting is being organized by Dominik Schneble of Stony Brook University. Please contact Dominik (dominik.schneble@stonybrook.edu) with suggestions for new laser scientists who may benefit from this meeting.

Participants from the 2018 New Laser Scientist Meeting

Distinguished Traveling Lecturer Program: COVID-19 Update

The DTL program was established in 1992 to bring distinguished scientists to predominantly undergraduate colleges and universities in order to convey the excitement of Laser Science to undergraduate students. In 2001 it was expanded to include graduate schools. Priority is given to those institutions that are not located in major metropolitan centers and do not have extensive resources to bring in outside speakers.

Usually, lecturers visit selected academic institutions for two days, during which time they will give a public lecture open to the entire academic community and meet informally with students and faculty. However, due to the pandemic, visits have been postponed. Informal one and half day zoom meetings with a lecturer may be offered in the future. The DTL may also give guest lectures in classes related to Laser Science. Applications to host a DTL should be submitted by members of DLS. The DLS pays an honorarium. The host institution takes care of any local expenses.

For a list of available speakers, see the DTL homepage at https://www.aps.org/units/dls/distinguished/index.cfm

The DTL program committee is chaired by Rainer Grobe.

Optics and Photonics in the Fight Against COVID-19

Optics & Photonics News: Chasing COVID-19 with Photonics

The FiO/LS meeting included two special sessions on ways our community is fighting the pandemic.  Tom Baer, OSA Fellow and 2009 OSA President, spoke of the community’s response to enable mass screenings and optical methods of sanitization.  A panel of experts described ways our community is contributing to optical detection of the virus, prevention of its transmission, and developing privacy-preserving methods of automated contact tracing affordable to vulnerable communities.  The panel included Laura Lechuga of Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Chris Myatt of MBio Diagnostics Inc., Jong Mo Seo of Seoul National University and Krister Shalm of NIST, and was chaired by Kristan Corwin of NIST and former DLS Chair. Additional details can be found in Optics and Photonics News: 

https://www.osa-opn.org/home/newsroom/2020/september/chasing_covid-19_with_photonics/ 

Efficacy of various types of face masks

Optics has been used to evaluate the efficacy of a variety of commonly available mask types.  In a recently published study, researchers at Duke University demonstrated a simple optical measurement method. They found that while some mask types approach the performance of standard surgical masks, several mask alternatives such as neck gaiters and bandanas offer very little protection.

[“Low-cost measurement of face mask efficacy for filtering expelled droplets during speech”, Emma P. Fisher, Martin C. Fischer, David Grass, Isaac Henrion, Warren S. Warren, and Eric West, Duke University, USA, Science Advances 6 (36), eabd3083 (2020) https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/36/eabd3083]

Also, watch this video produced by Duke University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeEBn4ttZZY

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