CLEO-PR 2020 will run as an online Conference on the original dates 3-5 August, 2020; please refer to the website for further information

CLEO Pacific Rim 2020

The latest Newsletter of International Commission for Optics is available here, including announcement of ICO prizes 2019 together with the last call for papers for the next ICO General Meeting that will take place in Dresden, Germany from 31st August till 4th September 2020, in coincidence with the meeting of the International Society for Optics Within Life Sciences (OWLS-16).

The early bird registration deadline for ANZCOP 2019 is approaching soon, so please register soon to lock in the early bird discount. 

You can register at the following link: https://spie.org/conferences-and-exhibitions/anzcop/registration. 

AOS Members are entitled to a further discount - please use the discount code that you received via email

We are very much looking forward to meeting with you in Melbourne at the AOS annual conference ANZCOP 2019 ! 

The Australian and New Zealand Conferences on Optics and Photonics - ANZCOP 2019 brings together four co-located conferences with a central theme of optics and photonics. 

It will be held at RMIT Univ. Melbourne, Australia; 8 - 12 December 2019.

Abstract Due Date 5 June 2019 

It is our great pleasure to announce that the abstract submission deadline is extended to Wednesday 19th June. 

Call for papers 

AOS member, and 2011 Beattie Steel medalist, Professor Min Gu from RMIT University has been awarded the 2019 SPIE Dennis Gabor Award in recognition of his pioneering work in nanoscale information optics. Internationally renowned for his expertise in 3D optical imaging theory, his discoveries are helping drive the development of solutions to some of our biggest challenges in renewable energy, information technology and big data storage.Congratulations Min!

https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2019/jan/optics-award-pioneering-physicist

At the recent AIP Congress, OSA President Ian Walmsley and AOS President Simon Fleming  signed a renewed collaboration agreement. The two societies to agreed to work together to enhance relations and improve communication in the best interest of their membership and the optics and photonics community. Direct benefits to members include discounts for joint membership and discounts to attend each other's (non co-sponsored) meetings (AOS-OSA).

Image courtesy of Chad Stark, OSA.

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