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.

The AOS is delighted to announce the winners of several of the AOS Prizes for this year.
 
The AOS Geoff Opat Early Career Researcher Prize has been awarded to Dr Sergey Kruk from ANU.
 
Both the AOS Postgraduate Student Prize and the AOS/Warsash Science Communication Prize in Optics  have been awarded to Ms Litty Thekkekara from RMIT University
 
Well done Sergey and Litty!
 
Look out for articles in forthcoming issues of AOS News from the winners. Note that Sergey will give an Invited Talk at ANZCOP in Queenstown in December on his prize-winning work. The 2016 winner, Andrea Blanco Redondo, will also give her Geoff Opat talk at ANZCOP.
 
The AOS Prize Committee is still deliberating regarding the Beattie Steele Prize and a further announcement should be forthcoming.

Congratulations to our new Fellows of The Optical Society, who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics. Well-deserved honour!

• Prof John Canning (USyd)
  
• Dr Adrian Carter (Nufern)
  
• Prof Deb Kane (Macquarie)
  
• Prof Malin Premaratne (Monash)
  
• Prof Ann Roberts (UMelb)
  
• Prof Howard Wiseman (Griffith)
  

The official announcement of the full list can be find here. 

Congratulations to A/Prof Igor Aharonovich (UTS) and Dr Mohsen Rahmani (ANU) for winning The Young Scientist Award of the Year 2017 for the Commission on Laser Physics and Photonics (C17), International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP)!

Igor was awarded for the Applied Aspects and Mohsen for the Fundamental Aspects, respectively. Find more from the Official Announcement.