The Australian and New Zealand Optical Society (ANZOS) is a non-profit organisation for the advancement of optics in Australia and New Zealand. The society was founded as the Australian Optical Society (AOS) in 1983 for this purpose. In recognition of the strong and long-standing links between Australian and New Zealand optics and photonics, the Society formally changed its name in 2020. The Society embraces anyone contributing to or interested in optics in the widest sense.
The Australian and New Zealand Optical Society was established
In addition, your membership will give you a voice, via the activities of the ANZOS Council, in the development of optics in this region, for which ANZOS is the primary representative body. ANZOS has members working in commercial, academic and teaching areas in visible optics, laser optics, IR & UV optics, X-ray optics, spectroscopy and atom optics, neutron optics, quantum optics, medical optics, imaging, and applications, to name a few broad categories of interest. Our conferences are usually very strong in visible and laser optics and applications, and usually have good representation in the other areas. Typical conferences have 200-400 attendees when not enhanced by collocation with other conferences.
For a personal view of the creation of the AOS, this article has been transcribed from the AOS News : Article - The Founding of the Australian Optical Society by W.H. Steel. In 2013 the AOS News (Vol. 27, No. 4) published an article of reminiscences on the first thirty years of the AOS, and the history of the logo can be found in the same issue of AOS News (Vol. 27, No. 4).
The AOS was originally established in 1984 under Tasmanian corporate legislation. The Constitution was brought into line with current corporate law in 2015. The original Memorandum and Articles of Association can be found here: