North America – Research and outreach abroad

Building communities

SPIE Photonics West 2018 felt incredibly busy, and other attendees I have spoken to share the sentiment. I look back on the conference with the feeling that the professional optics and photonics community is vibrant and keen to engage on many levels.

My week started with a presentation for the SPIE Students Meeting. I presented my experiences as a committee member, president and mentor of the University of Southampton’s Optics and Photonics Society. It was really precious to reflect on my journey amongst a growing and dynamic local student network, through which I have thrived personally and professionally. I am grateful to have been able to share my experiences with a global student community and have the opportunity to meet with peers.

Team building at the hardest Escape Room in the USA with SEaCarP committee and guests — Team building at the hardest Escape Room in the USA, with SPIE 2018 SEaCarP committee and guests.

I have joined two SPIE committees in 2018, namely the SPIE Education Committee and Student and Early Career Professional ad hoc Committee. I feel privileged to be part of active discussions and have the opportunity to contribute to guiding the SPIE’s mission. I am excited to be taking part in projects that will be looking to enhance the society’s education endeavours and the participation of student and early career professionals (SEaCarP). As part of my Education “duties” I am working with a smaller sub-committee towards better understanding the impact that the society’s members have through their dedication to outreach and public engagement programs. SEaCarP discussions have focused on enhancing the member experience of early career professionals. If you would like to get in touch to discuss these projects, drop by my LinkedIn profile to talk some more.

This international meeting was a fantastic forum to contextualise my professional and personal development experiences. It has given me the space to ask questions and actively listen to colleagues and friends engaging with the community. It is also great to see familiar faces again and catch up on people’s progress in their work and careers.

You’ll hear more from me at least by August, where I will be in San Diego for the 2018 SPIE Optics + Photonics congress. Bye for now.

Thanks to Vahan Malkhasyan for the picture that was used as the featured image in this post.

Career crafting

Happy International Women’s Day!

On Wednesday 8th March I travelled to the University of Exeter for a workshop organised by their Optics and Photonics society. They hosted an event called “Scientists and Engineers Can Do Anything: How to Create Your Dream Career” with, as a special guest all the way from the USA, SPIE visiting lecturer Alaina Levine. I was invited as part of a delegation from the University of Southampton’s Optics and Photonics Society. Thanks to the team in Exeter for the invitation and for letting me use their pictures in this post.

Alaina Levine signing her latest book "Networking for Nerds". — Alaina Levine signing her latest book “Networking for Nerds”.

The day consisted of a series of talks to develop networking and communication skills, with an emphasis on why these are important to build one’s career. Alaina covered a wide range of topics ranging from entrepreneurial to science-communication careers, illustrated by an colourful collection of personal stories. I particularly enjoyed the first session that focused on international job search. Finding a job abroad may seem like a painful experience. Her advice was to commit to the cause and show you’re invested into making it happen. It’s important to look out for opportunities, keep informed on who is growing and hiring. Google News Alerts and job adverts are useful tools; networks are essential to uncover many more unknown or hidden opportunities!

Networking with students from the University of Exeter's Optics and Photonics Society, comprised of an SPIE student chapter. — Networking with students from the University of Exeter’s Optics and Photonics Society, comprised of an SPIE student chapter.

A career in North America is something I am excited about, and this workshop was a motivation booster. My PhD is coming to an end and a move is going to happen in the near future. It is refreshing to hear that all it takes is creativity, courage and hard work, a set of skills that I wish will see me through to the end of my studies!

World classes

Last week I attended an international conference called Optics Education and Outreach IV (IV because it’s the 4th time it’s run!), which was held at the SPIE Optics + Photonics 2016 congress. I presented work that I and colleagues from the University of Southampton carried out during the 2015 International Year of Light (IYL 2015). IYL 2015 was proclaimed by UNESCO to recognise and celebrate the importance of light and light-based technologies for society, healthcare, education, environment, economy and as a means to connect the world.

2015 was proclaimed the International Year of Light by the United Nations to raise awareness of light sciences and its applications.

The conference was inspiring. It brought together a rich mix of researchers, educators and industry professionals to present outreach and education activities running around the world. Truly world-class. Words cannot begin to capture the diversity, enthusiasm and richness of what is going on. The work will eventually appear in an open access journal, and I will update this page when it becomes available.

I and, I felt, all of the authors sought to present our work on the world stage to inspire and inform. I had the pleasure to write 3 papers with 12 incredible human beings that go by the label of researchers:

Class-based outreach led by postgraduate students for school pupils. I presented types of activities that are suitable for working with schools, including poster competitions, school assembly lectures, workshops, classes, and more! This also included a once-in-a-lifetime project where 4 PhD students, from Southampton, and 2 high school pupils, from the Thomas Hardye School, took to the world stage by presenting outreach at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris for the IYL 2015 opening ceremony; here’s a great write-up of what happened in Paris, courtesy of Nicholas Wong.
Reflecting Photonics: a garden, with flowers, inspired by the world-leading research in photonics (the science of light) carried out at the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre. Watch the full video of my presentation here, courtesy of Dirk Fabian.
A compact optics suite with hands-on optics experiments and fully self-contained, like the one I have been touring during my trip through North America. It has now travelled to over 15 locations in 3 continents and 5 countries!

I presented the first 2 papers, and Nicholas did a great job at presenting paper #3.

Suited to educate: Nicholas and I presenting our oortable hands-on optics experiments suite at the 2016 SPIE Optics + Photonics congress. — Suited to educate: Nicholas and I presenting our portable hands-on optics experiments suite at the 2016 SPIE Optics + Photonics congress.

IYL 2015 had a global reach and the global impact will also, no doubt, be huge. I will be going back to UNESCO next month to hear the report on the year. It’s humbling that I played a part in this. I presented my hard work on the world stage at an international conference, people will read about this in a journal article, and I was filmed in front of a live audience on Facebook! Over 400 people have tuned into my talk, and those dearest to me, my girlfriend, sister, parents and family, were able to watch me present; that means the world to me.

Demonstrating live how light can be guided through fibres of plastic by total internal reflection. Watch the full video here, courtesy of Dirk Fabian.

Visites à Montréal

When in Montreal…

Parlons français! // French spoken here!

À Montréal c’est pratique d’être bilingue! Je passe la semaine chez Laurie, une très chère amie de mes années collégiennes et lycéennes en France. C’ést génial de passer du temps avec elle à découvrir la ville et rencontrer ses amis. Par le plus grand hasard Max, un ami d’enfance, habite à Montreal aussi!

Je profite d’être en ville pour continuer mon tour des universités de l’Amérique du Nord. La population étudiante montréalaise est énorme, avec pas moins de 9 universités à travers la ville. Ça me permet donc de visiter la ville en allant d’un campus à un autre, et j’ai la chance de pouvoir me déplacer avec un vélo emprunté à une des collocs de Laurie.

My bike for my week in Montreal. — En vélo à Montreal.

J’ai donc commencé par une visite à McGill, une université plutôt anglophone. Lors de ma conférence à Vancouver j’ai rencontré un chercheur, Sasa Ristic, et il m’a invité à visiter son labo lors de mon passage en ville. Il travaille avec un outil pour faire de la nanolithographie, c’est à dire l’écriture de formes avec des tailles à l’échelle du nanomètre, soit 1,000 à 100,000 fois plus petites que l’épaisseur d’un de nos cheveux.

Pour quoi faire? Les transistors, par exemple, qui font fonctionner nos téléphones et nos ordinateurs se miniaturisent depuis plus de 50 ans, et aujourd’hui leur taille est à l’échelle du nanomètre. Des outils d’ingénierie ont été développés pour créer ces composants nanométriques, et en ce faisant les chercheurs ont su identifier d’autres opportunités pour l’utilisation de ces machines de ‘nanofabrication’. Me voilà donc en compagnie d’un outil dont on commence à rechercher comment l’employer pour des nouvelles techniques de fabrication.

En compagnie du NanoFrazor de SwissLitho AG à McGill.

Je suis passé visité l’Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal pour rencontrer le comité de leur association étudiante OSA et SPIE. C’est très inspirant de voir ce que d’autres groupes autour du monde mettent en œuvre pour leur membre. Ils organisent des séminaires sur comment rédiger des articles scientifiques, des concours de culture générale entre étudiants et professeurs, et participent à des festivals de science pour le grand public, tels que le festival Eurêka qui se déroule au Vieux Port de Montreal. Me voici avec Jean-Sébastien en train de de voir le monde à travers les yeux de différents animaux!

Comment voir le monde autrement, avec des casques et des mirroirs.

Je fus particulièrement impressionné d’apprendre que les associations étudiantes en photoniques dans l’est du Canada se retrouvent tous les ans pour discuter et organiser des rassemblements internationaux d’étudiants pour une conférence.

Merci à tous pour l’accueil chaleureux lors de mon séjour en ville!

Ontario and Quebec

Bienvenue à ma gallerie du Québec et de l’Ontario! On parle français ici aussi!

Welcome to my gallery of Ontario and Quebec! French spoken here too!

Sainte Nom de Marie, Montreal — Saint-Nom-de-Marie, Montreal

Poutine, a local Quebec delicacy of fries, cheese curds, meat and gravy.

St George at the University of Toronto's downtown campus — St George at the University of Toronto’s downtown campus

Students of the University of Toronto graduate in the Convocation Hall

The family flat on Dan Leki way giving onto Lake Ontario — The family flat on Dan Leckie way giving onto Lake Ontario

Time to fly

I’m off to North America for 7 weeks. From today I will be in Canada and the USA and I will be back in the UK on 3rd September. During that time, I will be going to 2 international conferences

OSA Integrated Photonics Research in Vancouver, presenting my latest research results. See my previous post for more on this.
SPIE Optics + Photonics, where I will be attending a student leadership workshop, an Outreach Olympic Games and presenting two papers at the Optics Outreach and Education conference on my outreach and public engagement with research work that I carried out during the UNESCO 2015 International Year of Light.

In between, I will be travelling to different places in Canada and the USA to visit universities and companies, network with researchers and students, and tie in with family and friends. Here’s what the trip is going to look like. If you are near any of these areas, and I haven’t fixed a date to meet you, please get in touch!

When?	Where?
16/07-21/07	Vancouver
21/07-30/07	British Columbia, Alberta
30/07-02/08	Calgary
02/08-12/08	Boulder, CO
12/08-14/08	Toronto
14/08-19/08	Montreal
19/08-23/08	San Francisco and Bay Area, CA
23/08-26/08	LA, CA
26/08-02/09	San Diego, CA
03/09	Back to the UK

Watch this space for news and photos on my research, visits, travels, reunions and adventures.

Welcome

Dear family, friends and the unknown reader,

I am embarking on a trip that will take me across North America from 16th July to 2nd September. During this time, I will be going to many cities in Canada and the USA: Vancouver, Calgary, Denver, Boulder, Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco, LA and San Diego.

This portfolio will be dedicated to this trip.

It will cover my travels, my visits to research institutions in Canada & the USA and reunions. I may even share my feelings on my experiences from time to time, even though this doesn’t come easily to me.

The audience will be my family and friends.

My family are the dearest and loved ones, and those I do not yet know and am excited to have the opportunity to meet in the not too distant future.

The friends are those that I have studied with, worked with, lived with and been on great adventures with. I hope that you will be able to put yourself into one of these categories and find a reason to come back to this space for some updates.

I would be delighted to reach a larger and yet unknown audience, and hope you can use this space to get in touch with me to share your thoughts on what I will be relating herein.

I will be adding posts 2 to 3 times a week about what I have been up to and what is coming up. They will be short and picturesque, probably comprised of those pictures that say a thousand words and lots of filters.

I will be travelling on my own and don’t want to forget what is going to be a once in a lifetime trip. I am also doing this so that we all know where to find me.

I hope to see you there and/or hear from you on the way.

Matthew