From Glasgow, we flew to Barcelona to a brand new photonics facility just outside of town called Institut de Ciències Fotòniques or ICFO. According to Professor Lluis Turner, ICFO founder and current director, “ICFO is a young, fast growing research institution that aims at advancing the limits of scientific and technological knowledge in optical sciences.” ICFO is funded by the Spanish government and the European Union and is thriving. The faculty is comprised of a multinational, multidisciplinary group of photonics experts in a wide variety of fields. They have recruited an energized group of students from countries around the world creating a unique multicultural atmosphere, where in any given conversation the language can abruptly shift from English to Spanish to French to German to Italian and so on. The laboratory and office facilities are state of the art and the location is near the Catalonian Mediterranean coast.
The students at ICFO organized and played host to the fifth meeting of the International OSA Network of Students or IONS 5. It is difficult for me to capture in words the atmosphere at this student organized and financed event. The scientific talks were excellent quality, the organization was flawless, and the enthusiasm of the attendees for optics and photonics was unmatched by any conference I have attended. There were roughly 20 oral and 20 poster presentations on a wide range of topics. The poster session was held in a hallway where the 75 or so attendees would gather during breaks. The noise level during the poster sessions was so high that one had to speak at full volume to be heard. Students came from all over Europe, as well as several students from North America and Africa. Each chapter had the opportunity to share their success stories about educational outreach activities and student chapter activities during the past year.
My wife Bobbi and I were guests at a dinner organized by the ICFO faculty and which include Maria Yzuel, the current president of SPIE. The restaurant was located near the beach, the food was excellent and we spent the evening discussing world politics, European soccer, and the best wine regions in Europe; all topics which tended to illicit a wide range of comments and strong opinions from my dinner mates.
IONS5 ended with a conference banquet held at a local Tapas restaurant which involved over 60 students and faculty and a Saturday tour of Barcelona guided by ICFO students. The IONS5 meeting was the original motivation for my European trip (IONS Safari), my first trip abroad as OSA president. As I mentioned, it is impossible for me to capture in words the atmosphere at this event, which apparently was similar to the tone of the previous IONS meetings. I strongly encourage any of you who have a chance to drop by one of the IONS meetings to take advantage of this unique opportunity to mingle with the next generation of optics and photonics scientists and engineers. You will find it truly inspiring.
