College of Optical Sciences News for August 30, 2007

Watt's Up

College of Optical Sciences News for August 30, 2007

UA's Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Program Is One of the Best

U.S. News and World Report is famous for ranking graduate schools in such disciplines as business, law, medicine, engineering, and a few others. The magazine does not, as yet, rank optical engineering, imaging, or photonics programs, but does rank many science programs, including physics. It also ranks a few physics specialties, including AMO: atomic, molecular, and optical physics.

The 2008 rankings are out and UA's AMO physics program is ranked 8th in the country. U.S. News and World Reports lists the top 10 atomic, molecular, and optical physics programs in the nation as:

1. University of Colorado-Boulder

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3. Harvard University

4. Stanford University

5. Tie: California Institute of Technology and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

7. University of California-Berkeley

8. University of Arizona

9. Rice University

10.Tie: University of Maryland-College Park, University of Rochester, and University of Texas-Austin

UA's AMO faculty members include OSC's Brian Anderson, Rolf Binder, Hyatt Gibbs, Poul Jessen, Jason Jones, Galina Khitrova, Ewan Wright, and two Nobel Laureates: Nicolaas Bloembergen and Willis Lamb. Joint faculty members include Alex Cronin, Pierre Meystre, and William Wing in Physics. Other UA faculty with AMO projects include Arvinder Sandhu in Physics, and Oliver Monti and Andre Sanov in Chemistry.

Two AMO faculty members, Ewan Wright and Brian Anderson, are scheduled to present some of their recent research results at Optical Sciences Colloquia this Fall.

On Thursday, September 6, Ewan Wright, launches OSC's 2007-2008 Colloquium series with Optically Bound Matter. "Imagine a situation in which microscopic objects, such as dielectric spheres, lenses, or cells, can be induced to self-assemble into spatial patterns simply by irradiating them with unpatterned laser fields. This is the goal of the emerging field of optically bound matter in which optical forces between the objects mediated by the applied laser fields leads to the self-organization of the objects. In this talk I shall outline my work in collaboration with the University of St Andrews aimed at elucidating the physics underlying 1D and 2D optically bound matter."

The following Thursday, on September 13, Brian Anderson will present Exploring the Quantum Universe with Light. Brian Anderson's research group studies vortices in ultracold matter, as is shown in the figure to the right. Figure caption: "Like the eyes of many tiny hurricanes, dark holes in a small cloud of ultracold atoms indicate that the gas cloud imaged in this photograph was rotating. Unlike a hurricane, these centers of rotation, called quantized vortices, interact with each other to form a regular lattice rather than overlapping into one large 'eye'. By using light to study and manipulate vortex formation in ultracold gases, it may be possible to uncover secrets about quantum mechanics and other topics in physics."

For more detail about U.S. News and World Reports' rankings and for extended rankings in many other categories, please visit http://www.usnews.com

Short Course Program in Optical Design and Testing

November 15 and 16, 2007, New Miyako Hotel, Kyoto, Japan

http://www.optics.arizona.edu/kyoto_short_courses/

The College of Optical Sciences announces a two-day series of short courses. Three one-day short courses will be presented live and two half-day courses will be taught from DVD. All DVD courses include a live question-and-answer section by phone/video link to the United States of America.

Course fees include lectures, course notes, and morning and/or afternoon breaks. A certificate of completion will be issued at the end of each course.

Administrative support for the short courses is provided by NALUX Co., Ltd., a leading supplier of aspheric lenses and optical assemblies: http://www.nalux.co.jp

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Live Course: Introduction to Optical Polarization

Instructor: Professor Russell Chipman

Full Day: 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Intended Audience: Engineers, scientists, and managers who need an introduction to polarization concepts.

Live Course: Geometrical Optics

Instructor: Professor John Greivenkamp

Full Day: 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Intended Audience: Anyone who needs to use or design optical systems. No previous knowledge of optics is assumed and only basic mathematics is used: algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. By the end of the course, these techniques will allow the design and analysis of relatively sophisticated optical systems.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Live Course: Polarization in Optical Design

Instructor: Professor Russell Chipman

Full Day: 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Intended Audience: Optical engineers, scientists, and managers who need to understand and apply polarization concepts to optical systems. Some prior exposure to optical design programs and to linear algebra would be helpful.

DVD Course: Optical Design with Mirrors

Instructor: Professor Jose Sasian

Half Day: 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Intended Audience: Those who want to become familiar with design techniques for unobscured reflective systems and to expand their horizon in optical design. A basic course in lens design, such as the Geometrical Optics short course by Professor Greivenkamp, is a prerequisite.

DVD Course: Introduction to Interferometric Optical Testing

Instructor: Professor James Wyant

Half Day: 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Intended Audience: Engineers, scientists, and managers who need to understand modern interferometric optical testing techniques and the advantages and disadvantages of the various optical tests.

For more information, please contact Russell Chipman by e-mail at russell.chipman@optics.arizona.edu or by telephone at 520-626-9435. Or visit the Optical Sciences Web site at visit http://www.optics.arizona.edu/kyoto_short_courses/

Salsa Dancing at OSC

Thank you, OSC students and guests, for launching our Fall Community Speakers series with a wonderful dance performance. Dancers included Boris Glebov, Vrushali Korde, Sukumar Murali, Robin Palit, Stefano Young, and Garam Yun.

Happy Birthday

September 3		Sen Han (shan@veeco.com) Glenn Sincerbox (sinbox@cox.net)
September 4		Chris Berger (cberger@optics.arizona.edu) Bradley Ratliff
September 5		Dathon Golish (dgolish@u.arizona.edu) Curtis Rosenow
September 7		Elaine Ulrich (eulrich@optics.arizona.edu)
September 8		Nathan Hagen (nhagen@optics.arizona.edu) John Hartke (john.hartke@usma.edu) Sergio Mendes
September 9		Paul Spyak (prspyak@raytheon.com)

Watt's Happening at Optical Sciences

Check out the OSC Calendar at www.optics.arizona.edu/Calendar/index.asp

9/03/2007 Holiday - Labor Day. No classes

9/06/2007 Optical Sciences Colloquium - 3:30 p.m. -- Meinel 307

9/07/2007 OSC Community Speakers - Noon -- Meinel 410

9/13/2007 Optical Sciences Colloquium - 3:30 p.m. - Meinel 307

9/16/2007 - 9/20/2007: OSA - Frontiers in Optics Conference - San Jose, California

9/21/2007 Special Seminar -- 10:30 a.m. -- Meinel 821

9/25/2007 - 9/26/2007: Comprehensive Exams

9/27/2007 Optical Sciences Colloquium - 3:30 p.m. - Meinel 307

10/05/2007 Special Physics Colloquium - 3:00 p.m. - Meinel 307

On Campus

August 30, 2007 -- AME Seminar -- 4:00 p.m. -- AME S212

Dr. Werner Schiehlen of the Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics at the University of Stuffgart, will present Fundamentals and Applications of Multibody Systems.

August 31, 2007 -- Physics Colloquium -- 3:3:00 p.m. -- PAS 224

Dr. Hakan Turece, ETHZ Zurich, will present What Does the Electric Field Look Like Inside a Complex Laser Cavity?

September 4, 2007 -- Town Hall Meeting with UA President Robert Shelton

the UA Staff Advisory Council invites classified staff to join them at the Town Hall Meeting with President Robert Shelton on Tuesday, September 4 at 3:30 p.m. in the Tucson Room at the Student Union. For more information, please call SAC President Randy Livingston 247-2213.