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Research
The College of Optical Sciences is internationally recognized for its innovative and unusually comprehensive research programs. Our research encompasses a broad set of technologies and techniques for exploiting the properties and applications of light, touching virtually every field of science and industry. Our faculty are innovative and decorated — and constantly expanding the boundaries of optics knowledge.
For a list of intra- and inter-university initiatives with which our faculty participate, please see the Centers page.
And for information about funding for research projects, please the Support section or contact the Contracts and Grants staff.
Specialties
Optical Engineering
Optical engineers examine and develop different uses of light with instruments like lenses, spectrometers and interferometers; they build the practical devices that put light to use.
Optical Physics
Optical physics concentrates on the inspection, manipulation and control of electromagnetic radiation in relation to matter, focusing on the discovery and application of new phenomena. Optical physicists use and develop light sources that span the electromagnetic spectrum from microwaves to X-rays.
Photonics
Photonics is the science of the dual nature of light, emphasizing that it is both particle and wave at once; it covers the research and application of light from ultraviolet to the infrared.
Image Science
Image science investigates the ways that image quality can be defined, measured and optimized; it touches and improves the visualization of everything from healthy bones to unstable atmosphere to millennia-old geological formations.
