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The Optical Society Announces Seven Nobel Laureates Will Participate in “Light the Future” Program a

PRESS RELEASE

28 September 2016



The Optical Society Announces Seven Nobel Laureates Will Participate in “Light the Future” Program at Frontiers in Optics (FiO)/Laser Science (LS)

Optics  Luminaries  to Share Predictions of the Next Great Science Innovations
 
WASHINGTON — The Optical Society (OSA), the leading global professional association in optics and photonics, announced the addition of seven Nobel Laureates – Nicolaas Bloembergen, Robert F. Curl,
Roy Glauber, John L. Hall, W.E. Moerner, William D. Phillips and David J. Wineland – to its Light the Future speaker series at FiO/LS featuring theoretical physicist and futurist Dr. Michio Kaku, City College of New York, NY, USA. The program will take place Thursday, 20 October 2016 from 11:00 – 13:30 (EDT)  at the Frontiers in Optics Conference and Exhibit (FiO), the Society’s 100th OSA meeting at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center in Rochester, New York.
 
Professor Sir Peter L. Knight, OSA fellow, OSA past president (2004) and emeritus professor at Imperial College, London, England,will serve as the Master of Ceremonies for the program and ask the Nobel Laureates to ignite the future with their predictions of the next game-changing invention, what innovations we need in the next 25 years and what theories today will be impacting technology tomorrow.
 
Kaku will deliver the keynote – "Optics of the Future: Exploring the Universe and the Brain” – exploring the physics behind exciting new fields, such as detecting gravity waves from black holes, detecting twins of the earth in space, energizing laser-powered star ships, and unraveling the Big Bang. It will also explore inner space, e.g. the use of optogenetics to map the neural pathways of the human brain in the Connectome Project, one of the great science projects of the future.
 
The Light the Future speaker series will tour eight international cities as part of The Optical Society’s Centennial program, featuring visionaries, futurists and Nobel Laureates discussing how science affects our lives every day.
 
The series kicked off in  February of this year in Washington, D.C. with Ira Flatow, host of Science Friday, and has featured Mary Lou Jepsen at OFC 2016; Ray Kurzweil and fomer U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu at CLEO 2016. Upcoming Light the Future events include:
 
3 November:
Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate, former U.S. Secretary of Energy and OSA Fellow
Asia Communications and Photonics Conference
Wuhan, China
 
5 December:
Professor Sir David Payne, University of Southampton, Highfield and OSA Fellow
Photonics India
Kanpur, India
 
All sessions are free and open to the public and media. RSVP at randersen@osa.org. Additional information can be found by following #OSA100LTF @OpticalSociety on Twitter.
 
Most Light the Future presentations will be recorded and available at: osa.org/lightthefuture  or on
The Optical Society’s YouTube channel.

Media Registration
A media room for credentialed press and analysts will be located on-site. Media interested in attending the event should register on the FiO website media center: Media Center.
 
About FiO/LS
Frontiers in Optics (FiO) 2016 is The Optical Society’s (OSA) 100th Annual Meeting and held together with Laser Science, the 32th annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Laser Science (DLS). The two meetings unite the OSA and APS communities for five days of quality, cutting-edge presentations, in-demand invited speakers and a variety of special events spanning a broad range of topics in optics and photonics—the science of light—across the disciplines of physics, biology and chemistry. The exhibit floor will feature leading optics companies, technology products and programs. More information at: FrontiersinOptics.org.
 
About The Optical Society
Founded in 1916, The Optical Society (OSA) is the leading professional organization for scientists, engineers, students and entrepreneurs who fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate achievements in the science of light. Through world-renowned publications, meetings and membership initiatives, OSA provides quality research, inspired interactions and dedicated resources for its extensive global network of optics and photonics experts. For more information, visit: osa.org/100.
  
Media Contacts:
mediarelations@osa.org