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Special Symposia

FiO Symposium on the Future of Optics: A Perspective at Emil Wolf's 90th Birthday
FiO Symposium on Understanding the Developing and Aging Visual Systems
FiO Symposium on Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplification
Laser Science Symposium on Undergraduate Research

The Future of Optics: A Perspective at Emil Wolf's 90th Birthday

Two thousand and twelve marks Emil Wolf's 90th birthday.  The OSA would like to congratulate Prof. Wolf and wish him well on this occasion.  Over his 90 years he has had tremendous impact across all of optics.  His service to the community, the OSA, and the University of Rochester has left strengthened institutions and vibrant intellectual communities.  In his honor we will have a special symposium with distinguished speakers on the future of four areas where Prof. Wolf has made special impact:  inverse problems, coherence and quantum optics, physical optics, and optics at the University of Rochester. 
 

FiO Symposium on Understanding the Developing and Aging Visual Systems

As life expectancy continues to rise, there is an increasing desire to better understand age-related changes in the visual system. This symposium will first explore developmental changes in the eye’s optics and in the visual system that occur early in life. In the second half of the symposium, speakers will shed light on current understandings of alterations in the eye’s optical quality, retinal characteristics and visual performance during the course of normal aging.

The Developing Visual System

  • Retinotopic Mapping in Infant Visual Cortex Using Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS), Richard Aslin, Univ. of Rochester, USA
  • The Impact of Accommodation on Retinal Image Quality During Human Infancy, Rowan Candy, Indiana Univ. School of Optometry, USA
  • Optical Approaches for Controlling Myopia Progression: Evidence from Experimental Models, David Troilo, SUNY College of Optometry, USA
  • Central and Peripheral Optics in Myopic Children, David Berntsen, Univ. of Houston College of Optometry, USA
     

The Aging Visual System

  • Changes in the Optical Quality of the Normal Eye with Age, Ray Applegate, Univ. of Houston, USA
  • Retinal Changes with Aging, Steve Burns, Indiana Univ. School of Optometry, USA
  • Changes in Autofluorescence and Macular Pigment with Age & Implications for Vision, François C. Delori, Schepens Eye Research Inst., Harvard Dept. of Ophthalmology, USA

FiO Symposium on Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplification

Optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification is an alternative light amplification technique to lasers. It provides various advantages such as broader bandwidth, higher gain, wavelength tunability, and higher intensity contrast, that motivate its utilization in small-scale high-repetition-rate as well as large-scale high-energy laser systems. This symposium will provide an overview of the state-of-art of this unique technology, its various application areas, and its future development directions.
 

  • OPCPA Modeling, Gunnar Arisholm,  Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, Norway
  • Mid-IR few-cycle and CEP stable OPCPA at high average power, Jens Biegert, The Inst. of Photonic Sciences, Spain
  • High Peak Power OPCPA, John Collier, Rutherford Appleton Lab, UK
  • Few cycle Infrared OPCPA system and applications, Yunpei Deng, Max-Planck Institut fur Quantenoptik, Germany
  • Progress Toward Multi-PW and Exawatt class OPCPA/ND:glass Hybrid Lasers, Todd Ditmire, Univ. of Texas, Austin, USA
  • OPCPA Front End and Contrast Optimization for the OMEGA-EP Kilojoule Picosecond Laser, Christophe Dorrer, Univ. of Rochester, Lab for Laser Energetics, USA
  • Fiber Laser Pumped MHz high repetition rate few-cycle OPCPA system, Jens Limpert, Univ. of Jena, Germany
  • Tutorial: 20 Years of Progress in OPCPA, Algis Petras Piskarskas, Vilniaus Universitetas, Lithuania
  • Technology and Applications of Single- and Multi-color High-energy Few-cycle Mid-IR sources, Audrius Pugzlys, Technische Universität Wien, Austria
  • Novel OPCPA system for the FLASH-2 Free Electron Laser, Franz Tavella, Helmholtz-Institute Jena, Germany

Laser Science Symposium on Undergraduate Research

This special DLS annual symposium is rapidly becoming one of the most successful DLS traditions (this year's is the 12th of a series that began at the Long Beach meeting in 2001). During the past several years the number of undergraduates presenting papers has grown from only 10 to more than 40, and the talks have been of outstanding quality, some absolutely stellar. Last year's posters were outstanding as well, and generated a great deal of lively interest and on-the-spot discussion. This year's symposium will consist of afternoon poster and oral sessions. The event provides an opportunity for some of the student members of our community, who are already among the finest young scientists to be found anywhere, to present their work before an audience of their peers as well as the larger optics community. All are invited and encouraged to attend the sessions. 

Organizer: Harold Metcalf, Stony Brook Univ., USA