The AOS is pleased to announce that we have awarded the 2018 Geoff Opat Early Career Research Prize to Dr Mohsen Rahmani from the Australian National University.

This prize usually presents a challenge to the judging committee because of the quality of the applicants, and this year was especially so. The committee were presented with an exceptional group of talented applicants, all of whom received glowing reports from the nominated referees.

This is the second prize that Dr Rahmani has won in a little over a week, having been recently awarded a Eureka Prize.

Congratulations Mohsen!

Prof. Halina Rubinstein-Dunlop AO, past AOS President, current AOS Councillor and recent winner of the AOS Beattie Steel Medal , was part of the University of Queensland team that won the 2018 UNSW Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research for “Optical Physics in Neuroscience”

Prof. Andre Luiten was part of “The Sapphire Clock Team”, from The Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing, University of Adelaide and Cryoclock Pty Ltd, that won the 2018 Defence Science and Technology Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia

Dr Mohsen Rahmani, from the Australian National University, won the 2018 Macquarie University Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher.

For more details, including links to videos, see https://australianmuseum.net.au/2018-eureka-prizes-winners

Congratulations Halina, Andre and Mohsen

AOS is delighted to advise that Dr Frédérique Vanholsbeeck from the University of Auckland has been awarded OSA Diversity & Inclusion Advocacy Recognition based on her profound influence on the practices of her university and more generally in New Zealand science, and through her work on the AOS Council. She been a vocal promotor of gender parity in selecting invited conference speakers, based on her belief that this is central to giving these conferences, and scientific fields they represent, a positive image to junior female students. Thanks to her involvement and drive, ACOFT 2016 was seen as a shining example amongst the meetings of OSA’s Photonics and Fiber Technology congress in Sydney. Amongst other things, as AOS Councillor she promoted a policy that AOS only sponsors events that have appropriate gender and diversity policies, and she has argued to ensure that each AOS prize has at least one female applicant.

Help us demonstrate the beauty of optics and photonics

Please submit photographs that capture some aspects of optics and photonics, and are aesthetically pleasing. They can, for instance, be of your research, of optical phenomena, of optical devices.

We want your assistance in generating photographs that we can use to promote Australian and New Zealand optics and photonics in print and online.

We will publish the best photograph on the front cover of AOS News, and whoever submits this will get a year’s membership free.

To enter, you need to send to ausoptsoc@gmail.com: 

1)     The photograph (see required specifications below)

2)     Your name and organisation

3)     A brief (one or two sentence) description of the photo

4)     A covering email, that states “I ____full_name____ took this photograph and own the copyright. I hereby provide a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive license to the Australian Optical Society to reproduce this photograph in print, online or other format.”

The photos will be judged by a panel including three AOS Councillors, the Editor of the AOS News and the AOS Webmaster.

The Small Print The competition will continue on a quarterly basis with judging for each issue of AOS News. AOS reserves the right to carry forward good entries from one quarter to the next, and in any particular quarter to award multiple winners or to award no winner. The competition will initially run until end of 2019. AOS may extend this date or terminate earlier, advising by email, through AOS News, or other reasonable communication. 

Photo Specifications JPG, PNG or TIF, at least 300 dpi, 3600x2400 pixels (otherwise ask first.) 

Queries to ausoptsoc@gmail.com

The 2018 AOS W. H. (Beattie) Steel Medal is awarded to Prof Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop for her contributions to diverse fields of optics, including laser physics, linear and nonlinear high-resolution spectroscopy, laser micromanipulation, atom cooling and trapping and nano-optics. She is one of the originators of laser-enhanced ionisation spectroscopy and is a pioneer of laser micromanipulation and transfer of angular momentum of light and all optical drive micromechanics. Halina initiated the experimental programs in laser micromanipulation and atom optics at the University of Queensland. She has served the Australian and New Zealand optical community as President of the Australian Optical Society and as a member of the Council for many years, as well as serving on many conference committees. She has been a mentor and role model for many, as the first woman Professor of Physics in Australia.

The Eureka Prize finalists include at least two AOS members, one an AOS Councillor. Good luck Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Mohsen Rahmani (and any other members I failed to spot).

Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop has been recognised in the Queen's Birthday 2018 honours list. She is a recipient of the Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia, for distinguished service to laser physics and nano-optics as a researcher, mentor and academic, to the promotion of educational programs, and to women in science. Halina has been an AOS Councillor since 1994 and was AOS President 1998-2000. link to Details

The AOS congratulates the following students for excellent papers and presentations at the very successful, AOS cosponsored, ANZCOP conference last week in Queenstown, NZ. These papers resulted in the award of the following prizes.

James Spollard, Australian National University PhD student, won the SPIE prize. This prize is a consequence of our MoU with SPIE and includes $1500 towards attending an SPIE conference. The photo shows Jim Oschmann, Vice-President of SPIE awarding the prize.

Sara Lau, University of Queensland PhD student, won the OSA prize for best oral presentation. This cash prize is a consequence of our MoU with the OSA. The photo shows Ursula Gibson, Vice-President of OSA awarding the prize.

Calida Tang, University of Sydney senior undergraduate student, won the Wanda Henry prize. This cash prize is awarded each year at ACOFT (one of the constituent events of ANZCOP). The photo shows Simon Fleming, President of AOS awarding the prize.

The Dodd-Walls Centre, ANZCOP cosponsor, also provided several student poster prizes.

AOS and SPIE have renewed our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for another three years. The agreement was signed on 28th October by Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop and Glenn Boreman. The purpose is to promote optics and photonics research and education and serve members of the international optical science and engineering community. The terms of the MoU include information exchange, joint promotion of events and activities, leadership exchange visits, and an SPIE student prize at our annual conference.