Center for Optical Technologies celebrates another milestone

Fourteen world-renowned experts will give an update on the latest developments and applications in optical technologies Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 11-12, when Lehigh’s Center for Optical Technologies (COT) holds its ninth annual open house.

The event will be held in the Rauch Business Center.

Two plenary speakers will give addresses on Monday. Claire Gmachl, professor of electrical engineering at Princeton University, will discuss “Quantum Cascade Lasers.” Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at Harvard University, will give a presentation titled “Sub-wavelength Photonics: from Light Manipulation to Quantum Levitation at the Nanoscale.”

On Tuesday, Dennis Matthews, director of the National Science Foundation’s Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology at the University of California at Davis, will deliver the keynote address, titled “An Overview of the Field of Biophotonics: The Application of Photonics to Major Challenges in Biosciences and Medicine.”

The COT, which opened in January 2001, is an interdisciplinary center whose faculty and students represent the departments of physics, electrical and computer engineering, biological sciences, chemistry, materials science and engineering, and mechanical engineering and mechanics, as well as the polymer science and engineering program.

The center’s partners include Penn State University, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Northampton Community College, and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The COT has earned international acclaim for developing advanced optical devices with biomedical, homeland security, pharmaceutical, sensor, energy and other applications.

Two 90-minute tutorials are scheduled on Monday. Ming Wu, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California at Berkeley, will lead a session on “Nano-Laser Technologies.” Nelson Tansu, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Lehigh, will lead a session on “Semiconductor Energy Technologies.”

Tuesday’s schedule calls for a morning workshop on biophotonics, which will be introduced by Filbert Bartoli, the Chandler Weaver Professor and department chair of electrical and computer engineering. An afternoon session titled “Photonic Integration Foundry Workshop,” will be introduced by COT director Thomas Koch.

The open house will be convened Monday by Alan J. Snyder, Lehigh’s vice president and associate provost for research and graduate studies.

Koch will follow with an overview of the center’s research accomplishments.

The COT’s mission is to advance the science and global application of optical technologies through industrial partnerships at the local, domestic and international level that drive growth and diversity in the industry while providing leadership in educating the next generation of Pennsylvania’s optics workforce.

The full schedules of events for Monday, and for Tuesday’s Biophotonics Workshop and Photonic Integration Foundry Workshop can be found at the COT’s web site.