August 2007 Newsletter

Editor's Note

Jenny Magnes, August 2007

Dear DLS members:

It is time for another edition of the DLS newsletter. Summer roles around and gives us an opportunity to digest the events of the academic year and gear up for new efforts. In this edition we recognize some recent awards to our members that we are very proud of. As recognized by Hal Metcalf in the last newsletter there is a brilliant new generation on the horizon. Also, some of our distinguished scientists were recognized with OSA awards.

The highlights from the DLS minutes are intended to give a short synopsis of some of the topics that were talked about. There will be more to follow on those topics. The interplay of science and politics has many aspects as was seen in the Capitol Hill Day 2007. Topics ranged from STEM education to research funding and more. More than 40 Capitol Hill Offices were involved. History shows that the involvement of scientists and engineers with political efforts is critical so that informed decisions can be made http://ptonline.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_60/iss_6/47_1.shtml. 

The Distinguished Traveling Lecturer program is evolving. New speakers have been added. Laurie Butler and F. Fleming Crim represent the fields of Molecular Reaction Dynamics. Linda Young probes atoms and molecules in strong laser fields using x rays. More information is available through the link to speaker profiles in the DTL section:  http://www.physics.sdsu.edu/~anderson/DTL/lecturers.html.

Have a great summer!

Send any input and/or comments to: Jenny Magnes.

Chair's Message

Leo W. Hollberg, July 2007

To DLS members:

Time always moves too quickly. The weeks since our April Newsletter have been filled with numerous developments within our DLS programs and also with outside activities of interest to our laser science community.

May arrived and brought us together in Baltimore for another excellent CLEO/QELS/PhAST conference. Consistent with tradition, the meeting had a broad spectrum of technical and scientific topics: ranging from single photons and single atom experiments, to degenerate gases, ultra-fast and ultra-precise measurements, condensed matter, semiconductors, and a dizzying assortment of advanced laser sources, nonlinear optics and applications. We rely on that major yearly conference to provide the latest news of cutting edge laser-science and technology as well as an outstanding trade show. Our thanks go out to everyone involved in putting the program together and managing the massive meeting.

New Distinguished Traveling Lecturers

It is a real pleasure to report that DLS has now added four new people to the list of Distinguished Traveling Lecturers, they are: Laurie Butler (chemical reaction dynamics, spectroscopy, molecular beams), F. Fleming Crim (molecular dynamics, high resolution and ultrafast), Hui Cao (mesoscopic physics, nano-optics, quantum-chaos and -optics), and Linda Young (ultrafast x-rays, strong fields, atoms and molecules). These new distinguished lecturers broaden the range of research topics covered, and will help us better represent the scientific and technical breadth of our Division. Additional details about all of the DTLs can be found on our DLS website.

Laser Science XXIII

We now look forward to our DLS annual meeting, Laser Science XXIII, which will be in San Jose , 16-20 September, 2007, which is earlier than usual . As in recent years, Laser Science (LS) is held jointly with the OSA annual meeting FiO; the registration for LS and management of the joint meeting is being handled by the OSA. The registration website is linked from the DLS home page or can be found via www.osa.org/meetings/annual. PLEASE NOTE, the registration fees are reduced for APS members as well as OSA members, which has been inadvertently obscure on the registration web pages. For reduced registration fees you simply need to provide your APS member ID number. We encourage you to register by checking the box “07 LS Regular Member Registration”, which will indicate that your primary interest is in the Laser Science XXIII, sessions of the joint conference. In any case, registration under either meeting preference gives participants access to all sessions of LS and FiO irrespective of your indication of primary interest. 

A fantastic program for LS XXIII has been put together by the Chairs: Fred Raab (LIGO Hanford Observatory) and Charles Schmuttenmaer ( Yale University ). Topics include: Lasers in Precisions Measurements, Precision Control of Light and Mater, Optical and Mechanical Couplings of Laser Light (Joint theme with FiO), Lasers in Chemistry, Lasers in Biology, Lasers in Condensed Matter, Quantum Information (Joint theme with FiO), Quantum Sensing and Imaging (joint theme with FiO) and General Laser Science. There is also a special joint FiO/LS symposium: Optics and the Second “Magic Decade” of Quantum Mechanics. Our sincere thanks go out to Fred and Charles and to all the others that have helped with the program. 

This year, the DLS Banquet will be held after the FiO/LS technical sessions on Tuesday 18 th of September 2007. Rather than holding our banquet at the conference hotel we will venture out into the real world, to the Gordon-Biersch Brewery Restaurant which is a short walk (about 3 blocks) from the conference location. This venue should be more fun and interesting than the typical hotel ballroom; and also results in substantial cost savings ($50/ea rather than $100+/ea). In addition, the banquet fee includes two hours of “unlimited” drinks (microbrew beer and house wine, soft drinks, etc.) -- which might increase attendance. You can sign up for the DLS Banquet when you are registering online for the FiO/LS conference. Alternatively, if space is still available, tickets can be purchased at the conference registration desk before 12:00 noon on Monday the 17 th . This year, we are very fortunate to have Ed Moses, the Associate Director of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), http://wwww.llnl.gov/nif/, as the DLS-Banquet speaker. Ed will present the latest impressive results from the world's largest and highest energy laser, and will discuss future plans and prospects for NIF. 

In conjunction with LS XXIII, Hal Metcalf is again organizing the 6 th annual DLS Symposium on Undergraduate Research. These symposia have proven to be truly wonderful events, and represent one of the most important activities of the DLS. The symposia are now bringing more than 30 undergraduate students to the LS annual meeting; where they have an opportunity to present talks and posters to their peers and interact with the broader optics/laser/science community.

And last but not least, the annual meeting also has two exceptional speakers for the Plenary Session: John L. Hall, Univ. of Colorado , will speak on “The Optical Frequency Comb: A Remarkable Tool with Many Uses” and Eli Yabonovich, University of California at Berkeley , will present “Nanophotonics: From Photonic Crystals to Plasmonics”.

We sincerely hope to see all of our DLS members at LS XXIII in San Jose.

Division of Laser Sciences Honors and Awards to DLS Members 2007

We congratulate our members on the recognition of their achievements.

Hebin Li,
Texas A&M,
"An Ultra-Dispersive Optically-Controlled Atomic Prism"

Chun Mu,
University of Utah,
"Optimizing Contrast of Tip-Enhanced Fluorescence Microscopy for Imaging High-Density Samples"

Sarah Nichols,
SUNY Stony Brook,
"Dissociative Ionization of an Aligned Molecular Sample"

Dajun Wang,
University of Connecticut ,
"Rotationally-Resolved Depletion Spectroscopy of Ultracold KRb Molecules"

Yi Zhao,
University of Toronto,
"Experimental Quantum Key Distribution with Active Phase Randomization"

Daniel Kleppner,
MIT,
Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus W. Quinn Endowment

J. Gary Eden,
University of Illinois,
C. E. K. Mees Medal

Kenneth Chau,
University of Alberta,
OSA - New Focus/Bookham Student Award

sources:

Capitol Hill Day 2007 Brings OSA Members to Washington