VIDEOS

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Applying Hologram Technology for Ovarian Cancer Detection:  August 21, 2009.  From UA Now.  A team of UA researchers will use a $2.4 million grant to build a holographic imaging system to detect ovarian cancer. Ray Kostuk and Jennifer Barton share their preliminary work on developing a prototype that is helping to develop a new system that may save the lives of women at risk for contracting ovarian cancer.  (http://uanews.org/node/26944)

John Greivenkamp and the Telescopes at O+P:  August 25, 2009.  Courtesy of Rich Donnelly, Managing Editor, SPIE Newsroom.  http://spie.org/x36662.xml

Space:  Prepping a Telescope Mirror.  An interview in OSC's Design and Fabrication Facility:  August 31, 2009.  From the Discovery Channel:  http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/space-prepping-a-telescope-mirror.html

SCHOLARSHIP ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jennifer Harwell, Flor del Carmen Paleta, and Edward Carlo Samson:  Three students were selected to receive Rolyn Optics Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Awards.  The awards recognize and reward students who have done outstanding work as teaching assistants.  The recipients are selected on the basis of teaching evaluations from students and letters of recommendation from faculty course supervisors.  Faculty members have nominated their most outstanding teaching assistants for the award based on a variety of reasons including unusual dedication to student assistance, the design of innovative teaching labs, the launch and maintenance of course web sites, and excellence in substitute lecturing.  The awards are sponsored by John J. Ross, president of Rolyn Optics Company in Covina, California.  The company rewards three students each semester and to date, Rolyn Optics Company has rewarded 72 of our best teaching assistants.

Jonathan Nation:  Jonathan has been selected to receive this year's James M. Palmer Endowed Scholarship.  The scholarship honors Jim Palmer, teacher and mentor to a generation of Optical Sciences students.  Dr. Palmer was a key figure in the formation of OSC's Bachelor's degree program in the late 1980s, helping to develop the curriculum and teaching several of the required courses. In addition to his substantial and sustained contributions to optics education, Jim's research in sensor-system calibration significantly advanced the state of the art in that field.   After his death in 2007 from chondrosarcoma, Jim's family, friends, associates, and former students contributed generously to endow a scholarship in his honor.  The scholarship is available to third-to-fifth-year undergraduate students enrolled in the College of Optical Sciences program who are making satisfactory progress and are engaged in other activities outside of their academic pursuits.  Preference may be given to students who demonstrate a need for financial assistance. 

Alexander Miles:  Alexander has been selected to receive the SCHOTT Advanced Optics Scholarship for Undergraduate Students in the College of Optical Sciences.   The scholarship, established by generous contributions from SCHOTT, supports outstanding undergraduate students with an interest in optical materials, processing, or design and manufacturing. Selection is competitive and candidates must have a minimum 3.0 GPA and be U.S. citizens.  Preference may be given to students with international experience and recipients may be invited to participate in the SCHOTT internship program.  SCHOTT is a multinational, technology based group developing and manufacturing special glass, specialty materials, components and systems for more than 125 years to improve how people live and work.  The beautiful glass sculpture on display in our lobby was crafted by artist Christopher Ries and is a gift from SCOTT.  For more information about SCHOTT, please visit www.us.schott.com 

Noel Eloriaga, Carlin Kartchner, Brittany Lynn, Taylor Sorensen, and Javier Yanez:  Five students have been selected to receive the John Tipton Scholarship in Optical Sciences.  The scholarship, established by generous contributions from Dr. Sean McCafferty, supports or is a recruitment incentive for outstanding undergraduate students who are U.S. citizens maintaining a minimum 3.0 GPA and a demonstrated need for financial assistance. Incoming freshman are eligible to compete for the award having received a minimum 3.4 GPA from their respective high schools. All candidates must qualify as need-based students in accordance with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid program standards (FAFSA).

DARPA YOUNG FACULTY AWARDS

Jason Jones:  $300,000.  Two years.  Jason  will use the grant to support Two-Color Phase Coherent High Power Laser System for Efficient Generation of Light at Extreme Wavelengths.  Summary:  The coherent interaction of an intense two-color ultrashort light field with a gas target can lead to a variety of interesting phenomena. Proper control of the relative phase of each field allows one to coherently steer the trajectory of the resulting ionized electron that is generated in the combined intense laser field. This can result in either broadband THz emission or high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) region. Coherent sources of light at both spectral regions have a wide range of applications in science and technology. To efficiently drive such nonlinear laser-gas interactions requires the use of high energy and phase stable laser systems. This is typically achieved using the output of an amplified laser system. In most bulk, solid-state amplifiers, the pulse repetition rate is greatly reduced, from the MHz to the kHz range or lower. Combined with the low efficiency of the nonlinear conversion process, the overall average power generated can be very low. We propose to develop a novel 2-color laser system to provide an efficient, scalable, and phase selectable source for studying and exploiting such nonlinear interactions to enable their use as a reliable source of coherent light in the EUV and potentially THz spectral regions. This source will run at the full (100MHz) repetition rate of the laser, with peak powers further enhanced through the use of passive power build-up cavities specifically engineered for ultrashort, 2 color pulses.  Jason received his PhD from the University of New Mexico in 2001.  Before joining our faculty in 2004 he was with JILA at the University of Colorado. 

Stanley Pau:  $300,000.  Two years.  Stanley  will use the grant for for Microchip Ion Trap.  Summary:  Summary:  We will integrate optics and quadrupole ion trap on a chip for applications in mass spectrometry and quantum computation.  Stanley received his PhD from Stanford University in 1996.  Before joining our faculty in 2005 he was with Lucent Technologies Bell Labs in the Nanotechnology Fabrication Laboratory and a PostDoc at Max Planck Institute of Solid State Physics in the Spectroscopy Group.

About the DARPA Young Faculty Award Program:  The DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) program identifies and engages rising research stars in junior faculty positions in academia and exposes them to Department of Defense (DoD) needs and DARPA's program development process. The YFA program provides high-impact funding to these rising stars early in their careers in order to develop their research ideas in the context of DoD needs. The long term goal is to develop the next generation of academic scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in key disciplines who will focus a significant portion of their career on DoD and National Security issues.

OSC ON-LINE STORE

On-Line Classes:  Semester-long, for-credit optics classes, delivered anywhere in the world.  These are the same classes, taught by the same faculty members, that we offer to our on-campus students at The University of Arizona.  Take individual courses tailored to your specific interests, earn a professional graduate certificate in optics, or complete a Master's degree in optical sciences -- all on-line.  For all the details, please visit:  http://www.optics.arizona.edu/academics/distance.htm

Much of the information included in this e-mail can also be found in our weekly e-newsletter, Watt’s Up. If you would like to subscribe, you may add (and later remove if you wish) your name to our Watt's Up listserv by visiting http://www.optics.arizona.edu/helpdesk/listserv.htm

Cathy Alexander

Information Specialist Coordinator

College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona

cathy.alexander@optics.arizona.edu