College News

Nobel Laureate Donna Strickland gave an engaging colloquium to a crowd of about 200 attendees at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences on Dec. 5. Titled "High Intensity Fiber Lasers for Nonlinear Optics," her talk discussed the development of fiber laser amplifiers for nonlinear optical interactions, emphasizing their potential for high average power applications, such as mid-infrared generation and electron acceleration. Ahead of the colloquium, Strickland met with students from the college, sharing insights into her research and career journey while answering their questions. This was a wonderful opportunity for students to connect an inspirational researcher in optics and photonics ahead of the colloquium.

Don't miss the opportunity to check out one or both of these upcoming Spring 2025 OPTI courses. Daniel Soh will teach OPTI 647B Photonic Quantum Information Processing and Ewan Wright will teach OPTI 596-006 Elements of Nonlinear Optics! The latter course has not been offered in over ten years, so don't miss the chance to take it this coming Spring!

The NSF Center for Quantum Networks (CQN) is excited to kick off the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology with the 3rd Annual Winter School on Quantum Networks. Registration is now open! The goal of the Winter School is to provide introductory tutorials at all levels in topics that are new to the participants, who include CQN students, postdocs, faculty, CQN industry partners, other outside qualified persons (including students at non-CQN schools), and industry and government scientists.  

Optics for All (OFA) invited Caleb W. Baker, alumnus and optical engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for a talk and discussion on mental health in STEM. Caleb provided prevalence studies, as well as specific effects and constructs surrounding the psychological challenges specific to STEM graduate school and working at a place like NASA. The talk is now available on the Wyant College of Optical Sciences Youtube!

Thomas L. Koch’s term as dean of the Wyant College of Optical Sciences has been defined by 13 years of tremendous growth amidst the continuing explosion of applications and demand for new optics and photonics technologies. Provost Ron Marx said, “Dean Koch has led the Wyant College of Optical Sciences with outstanding leadership and unwavering dedication. He has been a champion of one of our unique strengths in science and engineering here at the University of Arizona. We are deeply grateful for his service.”

In this issue of Another Wavelength, we chat with first-generation PhD student, Paola Luna. She is currently in the 2nd year of her PhD program and is performing research with Cristian Panda, new assistant professor of optical sciences. Paola's story is one of persistence and resiliency. We'd like to celebrate National First Generation Student Day, November 8th, and commend her and all first-generation students for the accomplishments they have made, and the inspiration they offer.

A new award of $4.5M is set to fund CHIRP, the CHanneled Infrared Polarimeter, a compact tool that can provide scientists with extremely accurate data essential, and previously unattainable across all conditions, for long-term climate change modeling. Principal Investigator (PI) Meredith Kupinski, associate professor of optical sciences at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences, and Science PI Sylvia Sullivan, assistant professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the College of Engineering, are leading the project as part of NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Instrument Incubator Program (IIP). NASA Press Release. The Instrument Incubator Program funds novel instruments, like CHIRP, to launch new technologies for future Earth-observing missions focused on pursuing pressing Earth science phenomena.

Clarissa DeLeon, optical sciences PhD student advised by Associate Professor Meredith Kupinski, won a SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science) best presentation award in the session Mechanical and Other Engineering, for her oral presentation titled "Mapping Sky Polarization Under Different Atmospheric Conditions," at the 2024 National Diversity in STEM (NiDSTEM) Conference, held in Phoenix from October 31 to November 2.

Associate Professor Euan McLeod was named in the Photonics100 List by Electro Optics, a company dedicated to providing uncompromised, informed commentary and analysis on topics of interest to the global photonics industry. "The Photonics100 celebrates the people who are pushing the photonics industry forward, whether as the inventors, manufacturers, or end users of technology."