Special Symposia at Frontiers in Optics 2010/Laser Science XXVI

Check back often as speakers are still being confirmed and updated!

Arthur Ashkin Honorary Symposium
Industrial Physics Forum
Laser Science Symposium on Undergraduate Research
Symposium on Optical Communications

Arthur Ashkin Honorary Symposium

Symposium organizers: Mihaela Dinu¹, Mara Prentiss², Steve Rolston³; ¹Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, USA; ²Harvard Univ., USA, ³Univ. of Maryland at College Park, USA

This symposium commemorates Arthur Ashkin's contributions to the understanding and use of light pressure forces on the 40th anniversary of his seminal paper '”Acceleration and trapping of particles by radiation pressure.” Light pressure forces have served as the foundation for many cutting-edge research fields, such as work with optical tweezers, trapping of neutral particles and Bose-Einstein condensation. It is not an overstatement to say that the discovery and understanding of light pressure forces has led to a renaissance in atomic and molecular physics as well as optical science. Several historical overviews as well as new research that rest upon Arthur Ashkin's foundational work will be presented. We invite all conference attendees to help us honor Art and gain a deeper understanding of the far-reaching impact of his work in light-matter interactions.

Read the OPN article by McGloin and Reid (March 2010) about the 40th anniversary of Ashkin’s seminal paper “Acceleration and trapping of particles by radiation pressure.”

Invited Speakers include:

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

1:30 PM, Optical Trapping and Manipulation of Small Neutral Particles Using Lasers, Arthur Ashkin; Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, USA

1:55 PM, The Biophysics of Gene Regulation, Studied One Molecule at a Time, Steven M. Block; Stanford Univ., USA

2:20 PM, Title to Be Announced, James Gordon P.; Consultant, Bell Labs, USA

2:45 PM, Non-conservative Forces in Optical Tweezers, David G. Grier; New York Univ., USA

3:05 PM, Torsional Studies Of Single Biological Molecules, Michelle Wang; Cornell Univ., USA

4:00 PM, The Man and His Science, John Bjorkholm; Consultant, USA

4:25 PM, A Subjective History of Laser Cooling, Hal Metcalf; Stony Brook Univ., USA

4:50 PM, Multi-Photon Laser Cooling, James (Trey) Porto, Saijun Wu, Roger Brown, W. P. Phillips; NIST Res. Library, USA.

5:15 PM, Laser Cooling and Trapping the Most Magnetic Atom, Dysprosium, Benjamin Lev, Mingwu Lu, Seo Ho Youn; Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Industrial Physics Forum

Symposium organizers: OSA and AIP Corporate Associates

The Industrial Physics Forum (IPF) brings together invited speakers to address relevant and timely topics in the industrial sector. In celebration of LaserFest 2010, this 52nd IPF is themed "Applications of Laser Technology". Three themed sessions range in topic from biomedical applications to environmental applications to metrology. A special Frontiers in Physics session addresses the most exciting physics research going on today, regardless of field.

Invited Speakers Include:

Monday, October 25, 2010

Biomedical Applications of Lasers

1:30 PM, Laser Refractive Cataract Surgery with the LenSx Laser, Michael Karavitis, Lens X, USA

2:00 PM, Applications of Table Top Lasers Developed from the FEL, David Piston, Vanderbilt Univ., USA

2:30 PM, From Photonics to Genomics: Lasers and Imaging Technology Enables Next-Generation DNA Sequencing, Suzanne Wakelin; Ilumina, USA.

3:00 PM, Biomedical Imaging with Optical Coherence Tomography, James Fujimoto, MIT, USA
Environment Applications of Lasers

4:00 PM, NASA’s Space Lidar Measurements of Earth and Planetary Surfaces, Jim Abshire, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr., USA

4:30 PM, The Physics and Technology of Quantum Cascade Lasers, Federico Capasso, Harvard Univ., USA

5:00 PM, Tunable Infrared Laser Measurements of Industrial Process and Product Emissions, Charles Kolb, Aerodyne Res., USA

5:30 PM, Laser Remote Sensing of the Earth: Calipso and beyond, Carl Weimer, Ball Aerospace, USA

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Laser Applications in Metrology

8:00 AM, Use of Lasers in Time and Frequency Applications (or Metrology), Scott Diddams, NIST, USA

8:30 AM, Laser Fuse Processing for Advanced Memory Designs, Joohan Lee, GSI Laser Systems, USA

9:00 AM, Dynamic Interferometry for on-Machine Metrology, Michael North Morris, 4D Technology, USA

9:30 AM, The Electronic Kilogram and Lasers, Richard Steiner, NIST, USA

Frontiers in Physics

10:30 AM, Viewing the High-Energy Universe with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Peter Michelson, SLAC, USA

11:00 AM, Quantum Entanglement and Information, Chris Monroe, Univ. of Maryland at College Park, USA

11:30 AM, Epitaxial Graphene: Designing a New Electronic Material, Walter de Heer, Georgia Tech, USA

12:00 PM, The Status of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Dan Green, Fermilab, USA

11:00 AM, Quantum Entanglement and Information, Chris Monroe, Univ. of Maryland at College Park, USA

Laser Science Symposium on Undergraduate Research

Symposium organizer: Harold Metcalf, Stony Brook Univ., USA

This special DLS annual symposium is rapidly becoming one of the most successful DLS traditions (this year's is the 10th of a series that began at the Long Beach meeting in 2001). During the past several years the number of undergraduates presenting papers has grown from only 10 to more than 40, and
the talks have been of outstanding quality, some absolutely stellar. Last year's posters were outstanding as well, and generated a great deal of lively interest and on-the-spot discussion. This year's symposium will consist of afternoon poster and oral sessions. The event provides an opportunity for some of the student members of our community, who are already among the finest young scientists to be found anywhere, to present their work before an audience of their peers as well as the larger optics community. All are invited and encouraged to attend the sessions.

The complete schedule will be available in late September.

Symposium on Optical Communications

Symposium organizers: Karl Koch¹, Colin McKinstrie²; ¹Corning Inc., USA, ²Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, USA

In 2009, Charles Kuen Kao was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communications.” (See http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2009/press.html.)

In recognition of this honor, there will be a special symposium on optical communications. An illustrious collection of invited speakers will review the history and physics of optical fiber communication systems, from the first demonstration, in which a video signal was transmitted over 20 meters, to contemporary systems, which transmit information at rates of 10 gigabits per second and higher over distances of thousands of kilometers.

Invited Speakers include:

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

1:30 PM, Historical Overview of Optical Communications, Tingye Li; AT&T Labs, USA

2:00 PM, Development of Low-Loss Fibers, P. Schultz; Corning, USA

2:30 PM, Title to Be Announced, David Payne; Univ. of Southampton, USA

4:00 PM, Development of Semiconductor DFB Lasers and Modulators, T. Koch; Lehigh Univ., USA

4:30 PM, Solitons, Nonlinearities and Noise in Long-Haul Optical Transmission Systems, L. Mollenauer; Bell Labs, USA

5:00 PM, Integrated Optics in Optical Communication Systems, Hiroshi Takahashi; NTT Photonics Labs, Japan

5:30 PM, Capabilities of the Undersea Telecommunications Industry, Neal S. Bergano; Tyco Telecommunications, USA