Intellectual Merit: An NSF Workshop on US-Czech Frontiers in Photonics is to be organized. It will be held in Prague, the Czech Republic on April 18-19, 2013. The specific goal of the Workshop is to bring together leading American, Czech and European academic researchers to explore the next frontiers in photonics research and development. Leading experts from the US and the Czech Republic academia will present the current state of the art in photonics, identify emerging areas, and establish new international collaborations. The workshop topics will include non-linear optics, EUV - soft x-rays, microstructured and specialty fibers, optical sensors, optical manipulators, metamaterials, and THz and Mid IR photonics.
Broader Impacts: This workshop will provide a forum for academic experts to review recent and exciting breakthroughs in photonics, to establish collaborations, and to determine future research needs. The cross-pollination of scientific ideas will impact science and society in both the US and the Czech Republic. Selected US doctoral students will be given the opportunity to share their research work with European counterparts and to gain international perspectives. The Workshop is expected to establish future exchange programs for a diverse group of graduate or undergraduate students and their advisors. A summary report that contains the presentation files as well as the discussion outcomes will be disseminated via the Workshop website hosted at Stevens Institute of Technology and will be made available to the broader photonics research community and the general public.
was collocated with the SPIE Symposium Optics & Optoelectronics - a premier scientific conference in photonics. The Workshop was chaired by Prof. Henry Du (Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey, USA) and Prof. Ji?í Homola (Institute of Photonics and Electronics, Prague, Czech Republic) – one of the chairmen of the SPIE Symposium. The Workshop was well prepared - all the components of the Workshop went smoothly and ran as planned. The first day of the Workshop took place in the Clarion Congress Hotel (venue of SPIE Symposium). The second day of the Workshop took place in two locations – Charles University and the Institute of Photonics and Electronics. Both the venues provided good environment for the scheduled Workshop activities. Agenda of the first day consisted of oral and poster sessions. After opening remarks, lectures were given by Dr. John M. Zavada (NSF) and Dr. Charles J. Holland (ONR-G) on the role of their funding agencies. Then, lectures in eight topical areas in photonics were given (each topic was covered by one lecture by a US expert and one lecture by a Czech expert). The quality of the oral contributions was high and there was a good degree of complementarity among the lectures. Czech and US scientist were taking turns in chairing the sessions and moderating discussions. Poster sessions included posters on all the photonics topics covered by the Workshop. The posters presented by the US and Czech students provided a platform for interesting discussions among students as well as among students and professors. Activities of the second day of the Workshop took place in two locations – Charles University and the Institute of Photonics and Electronics. At Charles University, US students met with their counterparts – members of SPIE Chapter at the Charles University. At the Institute of Photonics and Electronics, US scientists got together with the Czech scientists to tour the photonics labs and have wrap-up discussion. Lab tours and discussions at both the locations led to numerous interesting interactions. The Workshop provided unique opportunity for US and Czech scientists in the field of photonics to get together and share their views on recent development and trends in various areas of photonics. The Workshop also contributed to education and training of graduate students who could meet leaders in their research fields, listen to their lectures and take part in the discussions.
