Marcia Rieke

The James Webb Space Telescope marks a new era in space astronomy. The telescope itself is the most complicated space astronomy mission ever launched with an instrument suite designed to take maximum advantage of the telescope’s capabilities. Because of the nature of Webb, the commissioning process was highly structured with a carefully designed timeline. I will discuss some of the challenges inherent in the commissioning process, and how the team met the challenges and how the mission moved from commissioning to routine operations. I will also present some of the early science results.

Paul McManamon

Dr. McManamon will talk mostly about LiDAR, but also include optical beam steering and free space laser communications. The LiDAR talk will include significant discussion of auto LiDAR, the form of LiDAR that is getting the most funding at this time. Revolutionary optical beam steering techniques will also be discussed, that will change how many optical systems are made. Free space optical communication, using some of these beam steering techniques will also be discussed.

Erika Hamden

In this talk, I will highlight how work on detector, mirror, and spacecraft technology has opened up exciting opportunities in the UV. I will describe ongoing work to observe the circum-galactic medium around galaxies with FIREBall-2, launching in 2023, and Aspera, a NASA Pioneers SmallSat scheduled for launch in 2025. I will also describe a UV space mission in development, Hyperion, which explores molecular hydrogen gas in Galactic star forming regions and planet forming disks via FUV fluorescence.

John Hall

The purpose of this lecture is to provide an overview of topics including optical material and design considerations unique to operating the infrared 3 – 12 micron spectrum. Introductory discussion is included such that any interested person, regardless of background, will be able to enjoy the presentation.

Saikat Guha

In this talk, I will give an overview and glimpses of research at and surrounding the NSF-ERC Center for Quantum Networks (CQN). The objective of CQN is to design and build the foundational technologies to realize fault-tolerant long-distance quantum networking supported by repeaters and satellite connections, guided by an applications roadmap and deliberate research on long-term societal impacts.