OSA Centennial Snapshots: Illuminating the New Century

Over the past decade, energy-efficient LED lighting has brightened the world. These bulbs are the Nobel Prize-winning technology you can hold in the palm of your hand.

by Patricia Daukantas

Automotive Lighting Continues to Evolve

The move to LED sources is only one step in a long series of changes that have defined auto exterior lighting’s functionality—and its sense of style.

by Andreas Bielawny, Thorsten Schupp and Cornelius Neumann

Write the Future

OSA’s Centennial “Write the Future” contest asked members of our community to imagine, in a short piece of fiction, what optics and photonics might look like in the next 100 years. The result was a variety of creative visions. A panel of judges selected a winner and three runners-up, all of which OPN is pleased to publish here.

Newsroom

Research and Industry News

Shining light on a treasure; “bouncing balls” outline tiny biology; devices to detect infections; better imaging via chemistry; glass out, wood in; the impact of LED lighting; optical “smoke rings”; truly random numbers; U.S. solar energy prices fall; German machine vision revenues grow.

Career Focus

A Year of Service, a Lifetime of Impact

For two decades, OSA Congressional Fellows have worked alongside members of the U.S. Congress at the front lines of the legislative process.

Conversations

Looking to an LED Future

OPN talks with Shuji Nakamura, co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics and plenary speaker at OSA’s Light, Energy, and Environment Congress.

Education

A Rochester-Russia Collaboration

Russian and American universities team up to advance the next generation of optical scientists.

Optics Innovations

Multicore Photonics: Poised for Industry 4.0

Multicore's CEO discusses how the company’s optical sensing technology could help enable near-term opportunities in the automotive market and long-term growth driven by the Industrial Internet of Things.

Light Touch

The Claude Lorrain Mirror

These convex, polished objects became something of a fad in the pre-photographic Romantic era.

President's Message

Telling Our Story, Every Day

“[Y]ou share an objective with all other advocates: to have your story move audiences from apathy to empathy to action.” —John Capecci and Timothy Cage, Living Proof: Telling Your Story to Make a Difference

Optical Feedback

30, 20, and 10 Years Ago in OPN

OSA Update

News from the Society

Thanks to our editors; honors to Capasso, Mourou, Richards-Kortum, Quarles and the Advanced LIGO Engineering Team; news from JSAP and COSI meetings; thanks to meeting volunteers.

OSA Foundation

Thank You, OSA Foundation Donors!