The National Science Foundation has announced that 18 teams will be moving forward into the final round of the $6 million Visionary Interdisciplinary Teams Advancing Learning (VITAL) Prize Challenge. Among those selected for the finals is the team composed of Ameé Hennig, Wyant College Media Content Manager, Prof. Allison Huff, Assistant Prof. at UArizona College of Medicine, and Vincent Hood, Illustrator and member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation. As well as newly added team members Trivikram Gummaraj Shivakumar Sridevi, MS student in Data Science at the iSchool and Whitney Aragaki, VITAL Challenge Education Mentor.

Recently, Prof. Meredith Kupinski and optical sciences PhD students Micah Mann and Leo Bia attended the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) conference in Spokane, WA to represent the Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the college's booth. Read more about their time at the conference.

Daniele Faccio
Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies
School of Physics & Astronomy, Director of Research
Advanced Research Centre (ARC), University of Glasgow

I will give an overview of some of these questions and ideas, specifically those that involve rotation in one form or another - starting from Penrose superradiance and the Zel’dovich proposal for measuring amplification from a rotating absorber to our recent proposals for generating entanglement from rotational motion.

As we enter the holiday season, SOCk is gearing up for a number of exciting optics outreach events and is seeking your support volunteering! Volunteering is an opportunity to gain valuable experience explaining optics to others enhancing your own professional and communication skills. If you are interested in volunteering for upcoming events or want to get more involved in outreach events please reach out to SOCk Outreach chairs.

Congratulations to Fringe Metrology and PhD student, Joel Berkson, for winning the Tech Launch Arizona (TLA) Liftoff Award at the recent IdeaFunding Event on Nov. 9, part of TENWEST. Joel shared about the award, "I'm really looking forward to graduating and working on Fringe full-time. I think we have a lot to offer in our unique approach to precision 3D scanning. I can't wait to become a part of the growing Optics Valley!"

Congratulations to Dr. Amit Ashok and Dr. Mark C. Phillips who were elected as 2024 Fellow Members of Optica. Fellow membership in Optica is limited to no more than ten percent of the membership and is reserved for members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics.

Congratulations to Wyant College of Optical Sciences PhD student, Lindsey Wiley, for her 2023 Best Student Paper Award at the 2023 US Workshop on the Physics and Chemistry of II-VI Materials. Lindsey presented her paper, "Collective Summary of the Extended SWIR (eSWIR) Band: Tradeoffs and Applications" in the third Session focused on Devices.