Optics & Photonics News - July/August 2010

Innovation Award. ;e award honors the company for its KTN voltage-controlled laser beam scanner using KTN crystals. ;e device represents the development of a very broad-wavelength-range (532-4,000 nm) voltage-controlled laser beam scanner with no moving parts. It is 100 times faster and 100 times smaller than conventional scanners. ;e scanner can be used for such applications as laser radar detection, laser scanning displays and laser machining.

Congrats also to honorable mentions Femtolasers GmbH for its CEP-stabi-lized FEMTOPOWER V for few-cycle pulse generation; General Photonics Corporation for its PMDPro polarization mode dispersion analyzer for Communications Networks; and TOPTICA Photonics AG for its high-power tunable laser source for sodium spectroscopy and other applications.

Grote Becomes Fellow OSA President Jim Wyant (right) met with James Grote to present his OSA Fellow member plaque in April at the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona.

Board Member Wins
IEEE Award

Congratulations to OSA Director at Large Masataka Nakazawa, the 2010 winner of the IEEE Photonics Society Quantum Electronics Award. Nakazawa received the award “for seminal contributions and leadership in the advancement of optical communications and fiber lasers through the invention of the compact erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA).” ;e award was presented at CLEO/QELS 2010 in San Jose, Calif., U.S.A.

Aleppo University entrance.

Wikimedia Commons

OSA Members Take Capitol
Hill by Storm

OSA members came from all over the United States to speak with their senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., as part of the 15th annual Congressional Visits Day. ;ey discussed science policy issues and expressed appreciation to Congress for recent appropriations actions in the fiscal year 2010 spending bill. Twenty-two members and more than 270 other scientists, engineers and graduate students visited more than 30 Capitol Hill o;ces, asking for legislators to support the highest possible funding levels in fiscal year 2011 for U.S. federal science agencies. ;ey emphasized that maintaining America’s innovative edge requires a continued commitment to invest in basic research.

OSA Members Elected to NAS

Congratulations to all OSA members
who were recently elected to the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
Election to this Academy is one of the
highest professional distinctions accord-
ed to scientists and engineers. ;e newly
elected NAS members are Terrence
J. Sejnowski of the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute and Salk Institute
for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif.,
U.S.A. and David A. Weitz, of Harvard
University, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.

NTT Nabs Innovation Award

NTT Advanced Technology Corporation was recognized at CLEO/ QELS 2010 in San Jose as the winner of this year’s CLEO/Laser Focus World

OSA Fellow Lectures in Syria

In March 2010, Konstantin Vodopy-
anov traveled to Syria on an OSA Fellow
travel grant. He gave two lectures at the
University of Damascus and one at the
physics department of Aleppo University.
He covered the history of lasers, photonic
generation of terahertz waves, and optical
frequency combs and their spectroscopic
applications. He was happy to report that
the physics departments at both institu-
tions have strong programs in optics and
lasers. He also notes that many young
women in Syria are interested in study-
ing physics; more than half of the physics
students he came across were women. ;e
Syrian government generously supports
education both at home and abroad.

Technical Group Affiliations

OSA membership includes up to
;ve free technical group af;liations.
Participating in a technical group
ensures that you will receive updates
on your areas of interest. Technical
group membership also provides
online and in-person opportunities
to network with colleagues around
the world. To learn more, visit the
“Membership” section of OSA.org.