On October 8th, 2014 Precision Optical was proud to host an extraordinary meeting of the Optical Society of Southern California (“OSSC”) http://www.ossc.org/. The meeting was held at Precision Optical’s facility in Costa Mesa, with the support of The Optical Society (“OSA”) http://www.osa.org/en-us/home/, and the International Society for Optics and Photonics (“SPIE”) http://spie.org/. The focus of the event was to further the cause of the National Photonics Initiative (“NPI”), who’s goal is to bring together experts from industry, academia and government to assemble recommendations that will help guide US funding and investment in five key photonics-driven fields: advanced manufacturing, communications & IT, defense & national security, energy and health & medicine. Please visit http://www.lightourfuture.org/ for more information about NPI.
The event was well attended by members of the optics and photonics industry, local academics in the field, and political representatives, including Congressman Dana Rohrabacher http://rohrabacher.house.gov/. Guests were treated to live music and refreshments, dinner, and tours of Precision Optical’s state of the art manufacturing facility. The evening culminated with the panel presentations and discussions, which were preceded by remarks from Alan Lambert Sr., CEO of Precision Optical, Nicolaus Lambert, OSSC Outreach Chair and CTO of Precision Optical, and Jack Latchinian, OSSC President and West Coast Regional Manager for 4D Technology. The panel discussion was moderated by Donn Silberman, OSSC Fellow and past president, who introduced the distinguished panelists:
- Dr. Robert Lieberman, President of Lumoptix LLC and SPIE Vice President;
- Dr. Bruce Tromberg, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the College of Medicine and at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, UC Irvine; Director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at Irvine;
- Mr. Gary Spiegel, past Senior Vice President, Mergers & Acquisition for Newport Coporation; and
- Dr. Thomas Baer, Executive Director, Stanford Photonics Research Center at Stanford University & NPI Steering Committee Chairman.
The panelists discussed a wide variety of topics concerning optics and photonics including the history of the field and its industry, new advancements in optical technology (especially in the area of biomedicine), and the recent efforts and successes of the NPI. In particular, the panelists discussed the Obama Administration’s recent announcement of $200 million of public-private investment to create an Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute (http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/10/03/fact-sheet-president-obama-announces-new-manufacturing-innovation-instit). With applications due in the coming weeks, the prospect of the institute further encourages the idea of creating a Southern California Cluster of Optics and Photonics companies and academic partners. Similar to the clusters already in place in Rochester, Tucson, and Florida, the proposed cluster would inspire close collaboration within the Southern California optics and photonics community.
Precision Optical would like to extend special thanks to all of the organizations/representatives in attendance that made this event possible, including State Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, Costa Mesa Councilman Stephen Mensinger, and Martin Paine, District Director for California State Senator Mimi Walters. In addition, Precision Optical would like to thank Durty Nelly’s Irish Pub (http://durtynellyscostamesa.com/) for catering the event, and Laguna Beach’s own “Jazz Quest” for the great music! (https://www.facebook.com/jazzquest)