The University of Southampton Optics and Photonics Society has an academic, educational and social vocation. It shows its commitment towards these goals by promoting and running a series of activities and events which involve the whole graduate members’ community.

Activities fall into one of three strands:

• Academic – this includes organising seminars, talks from invited speakers and trips to sites of scientific interest (such as Bletchley Park and the Joint European Torus). We are also a founding member of the IONS Project, which aims to build social and professional links between young scientists working in photonics around Europe and the wider world.

• Outreach – our Lightwave outreach programme, run predominantly by students, takes science out into primary and secondary schools in the Southampton area and beyond, as well as public fairs. For more information, please see the Lightwave website.

• Social – as the student society of the ORC and related groups, we have an extensive social calendar, including sport events, pub crawls, barbecues, formals, quizzes, International Food Days and the fortnightly Coffee and Cake Club. We hope to provide events to suit everyone in our society, and to run regular events to enhance the social aspect of the PhD experience.

The society occasionally also gets involved with special or commemorative activities, such as the opening ceremony of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL 2015) in Paris, France, and the Royal Horticultural Society Flower Show at Tatton Park.