The Scottish Chapter was formed in February 1996. It has been a very active Chapter since its formation and was voted ‘Chapter-of-the-Year’ in 1997, 1998 and 2000, Most Innovative Chapter in 1999, 2001 and 2003, and received IEEE/LEOS UKRI Section Awards in 2000 and 2001.
The Chapter fulfils a valuable local role in Scotland by providing a much-needed forum for interaction between our large laser and optoelectronics research population in different universities and industry which other societies either do not provide or are London-based with significant travel cost implications to meetings for our graduate students. The committee work to maintain the Chapter as a vibrant professional group in Scotland and to promote membership.
The goals of the Chapter are mainly based on nurturing the graduate students studying in Scotland. We aim to supplement the training base of graduate students via talks by internationally renowned researchers. To achieve this we host a wide range of outstanding speakers, who make dedicated trips to Scotland to participate in our meetings. The speakers include IEEE/LEOS Distinguished Lecturers and many other leading international figures. We make strenuous efforts to broaden the scope of our meetings, to cover as wide a range of community interests as possible. In the last year, in addition to meetings based around the IEEE/LEOS Distinguished Lecturers, we have organised dedicated meetings covering Photonic Bandgaps and Holey Fibres, Novel Light Sources and Displays, Quantum Cascade Lasers, and Ultrafast Photonics.
The “best practice” for the Scottish Chapter, we believe, is our unique format of Chapter meetings. Most of our events, rather than being stand-alone colloquia, are dedicated half-day meetings involving several invited speakers culminating in a keynote presentation. The keynote speaker is often, though not always, one of the IEEE/LEOS Distinguished Lecturers for the year, and we try to organise a “themed” meeting around each keynote speaker. Our Chapter meetings attract commercial sponsorship. In return, companies contribute an exclusive tabletop exhibition of their products during our afternoon/evening Chapter meetings and are granted publicity via our Web pages (including links to company pages). Sponsorship money has been used to supplement the LEOS subsidy in providing expenses for visiting speakers and refreshments, (coffees, cheese and wine). The meetings attract attendance from across the 10 Scottish universities (within an 80mile diameter) active in lasers and optoelectronics and related industry. The venue for these meetings is rotated between several of the main Central Belt universities in Scotland. A guest organiser from the host university is normally designated to help co-ordinate the event and, with help from Committee members, to put the programme together. The variation in venue, theme and organiser is the most important factor in keeping current members actively involved, and in attracting new members. The form of our Chapter meetings helps us meet our goal of contributing to the professional development of graduate students; they are given the opportunity to gain experience of presenting talks and posters at technical meetings. The meetings also provide a forum for graduate students to meet students in similar fields from other universities.
In addition to our dedicated Chapter meetings we organise meetings in collaboration with other organisations These include the Institute of Physics (IOP), the Scottish Optoelectronics Association (SOA), Scottish Enterprise, and the Scottish Universities Summer Schools in Physics.
A Scottish Enterprise/LEOS Entrepreneurship Club has been established to introduce graduate students and post-docs to entrepreneurship opportunities. The club has mentors who are key entrepreneurs, and also advisors, who offer advice on the possibility of establishing start-up companies on an informal basis. Several special club workshops are held each year and this year we have the theme of bio-photonics for these workshops. In October there was a joint meeting with the Institute of Physics on Bio-Photonics in Biotechnology and Medicine with international speakers from both industry and universities. There are 3 further meetings on this theme planned for the coming year.
The Chapter also participates in the organization of international conferences. In particular, we were very pleased to be the hosts of the 15th Annual Meeting of IEEE/LEOS in November 2002, especially as this was the first time the meeting had been held outside of the US and Dependent Territories. We were equally pleased to play a role in the local co-ordination and programme committee. Everyone involved believed the meeting to have been a great success. An initiative by Scottish Enterprise, following a suggestion from the Chapter Committee, created a special fund that allowed many more Scottish University graduate students to attend than would otherwise have been the case. Next year we have the pleasure to host the 17th Indium Phosphide and Related Materials Conference which will be held in Glasgow in May 2005. Some of the Chapter committee are involved in the organisation and we are looking forward to welcoming attendees to Glasgow.
Further information on Scottish Chapter activities can be found on our website (www.leos-scot.ac.uk)

Orlando Student Chapter
Charles Middleton, Chair

The Orlando Student Chapter of IEEE-LEOS represents students of Optics, Physics, and Electrical Engineering at the School of Optics/Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL)/Florida Photonics Center of Excellence (FPCE) at the University of Central Florida. Its goal is to provide opportunities for research, education, professional development, and the exchange of ideas and information.


To most of the over 42,000 students at the University of Central Florida, the School of Optics is a mysterious place where a handful of graduate students conduct high-level research in a scientific field most people are unfamiliar with. Rumors abound on campus about the “secret labs with floating tables” in the CREOL building. In an effort to convert the students’ curiosity and apprehension into interest and understanding, the LEOS student chapter worked with the CREOL Association of Optics Students (CAOS) to organize a student-run event called Optics Day. Campus-wide advertising brought in a continuous stream of students during the day-long event. Optics Day activities included lectures by School of Optics faculty, presentations from local optics industry, refreshments and optics-themed prizes such as LED key chains and glow-in-the-dark cups. We were also able to show off our student display projects, partially funded by LEOS: a laser scanning system and a demonstration of free-space communication.
In addition to Optics Day, LEOS members have been involved in other outreach efforts, judging local science fairs and giving frequent lab tours to groups ranging from local school children to visiting scientists and optics professionals.
LEOS has also helped sponsor many student and faculty seminars. The student seminars have been helpful for students to prepare for conference presentations. In the past year these have included Joel Hales, “Nonlinear spectroscopy using femtosecond white-light continuum”; Ladislav Jankovic, “Quadratic spatial solitons and beyond” and “Reflecting solitons”; Bojan Resan, “Experimental characterization and numerical simulation of dispersion-managed breathing-mode external sigma-cavity semiconductor mode-locked laser”; and Clara Rivero, “Tellurite Glasses for Raman Gain Applications.” The faculty seminars have given students an opportunity to learn from faculty on a wide range of topics, including a series of lectures on the history of physics with Prof. Michael Bass and a series on physics and mathematics with Prof. Boris Zeldovich.
LEOS members have also benefited from several invited LEOS Distinguished Lecturers, including Prof. J. Gary Eden, “Microplasma Arrays: Photonic Devices for Emission and Photodetection”; Prof. Daniel Mittleman, “Imaging with terahertz waves”; Prof. Bahram Javidi, “The Role of Optics and Photonics for Authentication, Verification, and Security Systems”; Prof. John David, “Low noise avalanche photodiodes”; Prof. Amin Dharamsi, “Advanced Optical Sensing using Laser Modulation Spectroscopy”; and Dr. Claire Gmachl, “Quantum Cascade Lasers.”
To recognize outstanding academic and scientific achievements of the graduate students within the School of Optics/CREOL, the LEOS Student Chapter has promoted the program “The School of Optics/CREOL Student of the Year Award”. We proposed the procedure and the criteria for selecting the best students of our school. The winner of the award receives a Graduate Fellowship Enhancement of $500 provided by the School of Optics/CREOL and a certificate. The award committee (consisting of five faculty appointed and chaired by the Associate Director for Academic Programs) selects three finalists who give a final oral presentation regarding one subject of their research. After this seminar, the committee selects the winner, who is announced at our Industrial Affiliates Day in April. Last year’s winner, Michael Mielke, was a LEOS member and served as chapter president for the 2002-2003 academic year.
Not to leave out the teachers, the LEOS student chapter has helped organize “The CAOS Teacher of the Year Award.” CREOL students are asked to nominate and vote for the professor that, overall, impressed them the most in class in terms of clarity of the message, lecture flowing, availability outside class, handouts, feedback on homework and exams, fairness in grading, etc. The award for last year went to Prof. George Stegeman.
In the future we will build on the success of activities such as Optics Day and the invited LEOS distinguished Lectures in order to reach the goals of our organization.