1. What is the best piece of career advice that you have ...spie.org/documents/Students/Advice_from_Facilitators_2015.pdfon a project that concerned total internal reflection (TIR)

Volker Sorger George Washington University [email protected] Area of expertise: Nanophotonics

1. What is the best piece of career advice that you have received?

The best piece for me was to realize who I really am. It was given to me by a friend I met many

times at my gym. He was an middle aged gentlemen with great intuition; he was able to

summarize the various facets of me within 3 words, and I was fascinated by that simplicity yet

encompassing description.

At the workshop, I'd like to give such far-reaching and life-shaping advise to students if possible.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? When I was the VP for the UC Berkeley SPIE chapter, I remember attending the Stanford photonics retreat in 2011. We went to a small resort in north bay, and enjoyed discussions, talks, and fun around optics spanning students and senior professors. At that time I was working on a project that concerned total internal reflection (TIR) of a plasmon nanolaser. Interestingly Antony Siegman just gave an old-school-style (in a good way) talk about TIR. The next day at lunch we had a long chat about this effect at the nanoscale, which was non-trivial. Two weeks later I was shocked to hear that his nice old gentlemen, Tony, passed away. While I only had known him for a short time, I internalized that a deep connection, and taking the time to listen to students and their ideas is a critical skill we the facilitators often forget or dont have. It showed me that at any time in life, the time spend with a student should be made valuable, and in the end we published that paper in Nature Materials. As a facilitator, I'd like to give back to students and provide them with technical and soft-skill details to accelerated their careers.

Kyu Hyun Kim University of Michigan [email protected] Area of expertise: Resonators, Microfluidics, Optomechanics.


The best piece of career advice I received during the workshop last year was "start looking for a

job early".

Until that, I was slow on finding the job and more focused on my Ph.D research. After I looked

into the current job market, including both industry and academia, I found more area of field

where my research could be applied to. This actually encouraged me to think outside the box

and find new ideas for my research too.

Also, by searching what kind of jobs are available, I was able to prepare for the qualities that

employers look for.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? This year, I have replaced our chapter's bi-weekly meeting with open-to-all journal club. This was to bring casual yet informative activity to our members. Till then, our chapter had a lot of successful big events but needed a routine event that is focused on learning on different aspects of current optic researches. The routine event is important since it builds friendship between members. The journal club does not have specific speaker but have a moderator. Members who are interested just have to read the paper assigned and attend the meeting. During the meeting, members casually discuss about the paper. It is important to me since the turnout for the meeting is higher than before and we had new members from various background coming to the journal clubs. We found a simple and effective way to hire new members and bring our members informative sessions.

Carlos Villaseñor-Mora Universidad de Guanajuato [email protected] Area of expertise: Infrared thermography


You need to work very hard to achieve that you wish, in all senses.

I am working in the place that I wanted and enjoy my work

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? There are many, but maybe the most important were the workshops that we create to high school professors, and for kids, they are well established now in the CIO.They are important because the community service is very important for my work group, to share the knowledge always is fine to my people.

Najva Akbari Cornell University [email protected] Area of expertise: Biomedical Imaging


"Don't lose sight of life and your purpose" this thought has helped me keep a balanced life and

to make sure I don't lose track of why I'm doing what I'm doing.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? We've held several poster nights across various departments through our student chapters where students have had the chance to connect and interact. I've seen many great collaborations and friendships start from these nights and I am proud to have been part of it making this happen.

Angela Dudley CSIR National Laser Centre [email protected] Area of expertise: Experimental Optics in Structured Light


The best advice that I have received is to be open to new opportunities and to not restrict

oneself to only one career option… that is probably why I studied a Science degree at University.

At school I didn’t have a clear idea of what career I would end up in, but I knew studying Maths

and Physics would open many doors… and indeed it has. I’m currently a senior researcher who

manages a group of 5 researchers working on experimental techniques for optical

communication. I have also recently been asked to be a project liaison for a new prototyping

facility at our institute. Often when faced with new opportunities we feel unequipped or not the

“right fit” for the job, but it’s only once we’ve “jumped into the deep end” that we learn more

about our own personalities and capabilities.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? The event that I am most proud of during my student chapter officer tenure was being on the organizing committee for the first IONs in South Africa. Not only did it teach me many organizational skills, but I met many enthusiastic students from different parts of South Africa and Africa. One of these students I ended up supervising for her 4th year honours project soon after the IONs event took place. It was a really sense of achievement to see how much the students and visiting lecturers enjoyed themselves and the new friendships and connections that they made.

Dolonchampa Maji Washington University in St. Louis (School of Medicine) [email protected] Area of expertise: Biomedical optics (optical contrast agents, cancer diagnostics, optical molecular imaging)


“Do what you do best, and be the best in what you do”

Never ceases to inspire me! I received this advice from my father early in my life, and it was the

driving force behind my decision to pursue undergraduate degree and then higher studies in the

interface of biology and engineering (instead of going for the more sought-after disciplines such

as computer and electronics engineering!). Till today I have received this advice from many of

my mentors including my PhD guide which continues to drive my career objectives.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? As the President of WUSTL SPECTRA (the joint OSA and SPIE student chapter), 2014-15 I am most proud of spearheading the International Year of Light Symposium, WUSTL, 2015. My objective as president was primarily to maximize chapter recognition through expanding range of activities which benefits the WUSTL optics and photonics community. With this aim I proposed to combine the visiting lecturers grant from SPIE and OSA, and organize a full-fledged day-long symposium focused at increasing awareness about optics and photonics research and career opportunities. The symposium featured 2 invited speakers (Dr. Marc Himel, Jenoptik Optical Sustems and Dr. Alex Viktin, U. of Toronto), faculty in optics and photonics from WUSTL, industry experts from the greater St Louis area and student representatives from similar groups at WUSTL. Focused sessions included keynote addresses, hot topics presentations from research labs and career panels. The symposium was a first of its kind organized at WUSTL and was hugely appreciated. I am proud and at the same time very very thankful to the SPECTRA board, our adviser and sponsors. As President Emeritus, I would want SPECTRA to join hands with other student chapters and organize a national level conference for optics and photonics in the near future. This event is very close to my heart as it has clearly shown together we can achieve a lot!

Andrei Anisimov TU Delft [email protected] Area of expertise: Optical metrology


(a round table after the workshop in 2010) "Do not be afraid of changes in your career". I have

changed my topic several years after that (not completely, but significantly) and now I am very

happy to start new ones.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? ITMO University student chapter was quite alive in 2005s, but later there were no activities at all. In 2009 the "new stream" started. We increased the number of involved students from ~20 up to 50 by 2011-2012, now it is more than that. The main outcome is that all activities started to be periodical, not accidental. All these resulted in contentious growth of the chapter and it is keeping growing and organizing new events now.

Manuel Guizar-Sicairos Paul Scherrer Institut [email protected] Area of expertise: X-ray imaging


I cannot come up with anything specific. Career advice has been administered to me in small

doses by different people and pointing in different directions. Perhaps the most relevant thing I

have learned is that in career choices there is really no right or wrong, and not even some better

or worse. Its all about how you choose to grow.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? I was very proud of the success we had with a Friday student colloquium with pizza. I appreciated the chance to learn and openly discuss about the research projects of fellow students.

Juan C. Valdiviezo-Navarro Polytechnic University of Tulancingo [email protected] Area of expertise: Image processing, hyperspectral imaging


An important advice I received some years ago was: when you are sure you have learned some

physical phenomenon, try to explain it to a child; if the child understands what you are

explaining, then you have really learned it. This advice has been the best I have received

because it guides me in my every day professional life. During our activities as a Student Chapter

at INAOE I had the chance to explain optics related phenomena to children of different ages. In

such situations I follow this advice to capture the attention of the kids and the results were

extraordinary. Thus, when I try to teach mathematical and physical concepts at my University, I

use to explain them as if my students were children. Hence the physical concepts should be

clearly explained in order to everybody can understand.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? One activity that I am most proud of was called “Science Workshop for kids”. For this activity, we as a Student Chapter gave some dissemination talks and interactive experiments related to optics and photonics. The workshop was given to children of different ages in communities that are far away of the big cities in Mexico. Through this activity many children could learned for the first time about color, image formation, and optics phenomena. I was really excited because children enjoyed playing with mirrors, lenses, filters, and light sources. Our major goal was that we demonstrated that Science, particularly Optics, is funny can be accessible to everybody who are interested.

Ying Hu The Salk Institute [email protected] Area of expertise: single-molecule super-resolution imaging


Reach outside the curriculum and network at conferences. The connections I made shaped my

career after graduation.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? I served as the vice president of the SPIE Student Chapter at Rice University. We organized lunch optics talks with free pizzas. It was important because we ran these events using the SPIE student chapter award. As I was doing the budget, I could observe the direct impact from the events we were planning throughout the year.

Brandon Conover Practical Scientific Solutions, Inc. [email protected] Area of expertise: Photonics


Relationship building is key to a successful business. I allocate a large portion of my business

development budget to this and always recommend to colleagues to understand how culture,

relationships, and attitudes impact their industry. It takes time to build trust but once you have

it, business moves forward quickly.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? Expansion of the tutoring and mentoring program at North Carolina State University. The program had grown stagnant and unmanaged. We were able to make it more robust and have it be seen as an important resource, especially for young graduate students.

Than Singh Saini Than Singh Delhi Technological University [email protected] Area of expertise: Specialty Optical Fibers and Waveguides


During the Student Leadership Workshop in 2013 I was very motivated by the expert lecture in

the workshop. Then I decide to work hard in the field of my research. After that I have worked a

lot in my research career in the field of Optics and Photonics. As a result I got published a

number of papers in reputed international journals.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? At this moment I would like to recall the Optics Outreach Games (OOG) during SPIE O&P 2013. For the presentation in this event I had made some basic demonstrations based on Reflection, Refraction, Polarization, ...etc. I was very happy during the presentation of these models because people were feeling a lot of joy by seeing these optical items. On the basis of that I was awarded by "People Choice Award" on my presentation in this event. This was important to me because it was my initial demonstration on these type of optical models.

Fartash Vasefi Cedars Sinai Medical Center [email protected] Area of expertise: Biomedical Optics, Nanotechnology


After working on many startups and technology translation from bench to bed site, I have

realized how important is to have strong connection and understating of clinicians /market end

users needs and giving priority to address their needs rather than focusing on technology

advancements.

I like to mention how technology is behind in operating rooms and clinics compared to the

technology currently employed in iPhones.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? Participating at SPIE Photonics West conferences for over 7 years networking with brilliant scinetist in optics in medicine field. It definitely helped me to build up my career in Biomedical optics research.

Sandra Balderas-Mata Universidad de Guadalajara [email protected] Area of expertise: Visual optics


To being part of a student chapter during my master and my PhD studies was one of the best

experiences in my life. I enjoyed organizing academic events and also giving talks to young

people so they can be more in touch with science. These two things help me decided to become

a college teacher and a researcher instead of moving to the industry. I like to help students to

improve their skills and to find inside them the curiosity to discover a whole new and exciting

world in science. Also, I enjoy giving talks about some basic subjects in my area of expertise and

to get involved in the organization of some of the University events.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? One of the things that I embraced most, as part of the student chapter was, to know people for all over the world, not only my peers but also Professors and people from SPIE. This helps me to learn more about other cultures and to know that we had the same language: Science, and that this is more important than the barriers of language or our own ways of thinking. Also, I learned so much from all of them, so much wisdom, I will keep all of them in my mind and in my heart for ever. Some of them are still my friends and colleagues.

Elizabeth Bernhardt Washington State University [email protected] Area of expertise: Non-linear optics and polymer physics


Spend 90% of your time on projects that are 10% from being done.

My adviser likes to remind me to multitask because he likes to see results. Indeed, bosses,

superiors, and institutions giving out grants like to see tangible results; no one likes to hear "it's

almost done; wait two more days!" As a graduate student, there are many projects to complete

in a relatively short amount of time, and it can seem impossible or daunting to finish or even

start tasks. Spending more time on projects that will soon bear fruit will help please your boss,

and eventually the items you only spend 10% of your time on will be the items you spend 90% of

your time on! Plus, seeing results (even small results, like graphs of collected data) motivates me

to keep working!

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? Last school year, I received a Presidential Leadership Award for designing and implementing a successful outreach program. I learned to leverage various outreach requirements of research grants to persuade professors to allow their graduate students to perform outreach, even when the professors believed (and continue to believe) outreach is a waste of time. WSU's chapter of OSA/SPIE designed several outreach activities, such as an introduction to spectroscopy, and guided many hundred children through these outreach activities. I made connections with the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and local elementary and middle schools; all of these connections are excited to work with us in the coming school year. This program is important to me because I desire to change future generations of scientists' views on outreach; I want scientists to know outreach is necessary and not see it as a waste of time. Being recognized with the presidential award showed me that although the physics department may not see the utility in outreach, WSU as a whole recognizes the need to educate future scientists and inspire the next generation to pursue higher education. In addition to the outreach program, WSU OSA/SPIE applied for and received an SPIE IYL grant to design and implement a laser maze. I brought this idea to the club after O+P's 2014 leadership conference (where I learned of this idea!) and we pursued funding until we received a grant! After many months of planning, purchasing, circuit building, troubleshooting, testing, and crying, our club unveiled the laser maze on April 11th. Despite setbacks and frustrations, the event was very well received and very well attended. I was proud of the efforts of the club's members and felt extremely gratified to see people enjoying the maze and learning about optics and photonics. This event was very important to me because I believe outreach is a fundamental piece of every scientist's career. This event showed people of the community how important optics and photonics are while providing a fun challenge in a relaxed atmosphere. I think participants learned science can be fun and enjoyable and I hope we inspired a few children to continue to pursue a life of scientific learning and discovery.

Amira Baili Engineering school of communications of Tunis, Sup'Com [email protected] Area of expertise: Nonlinear optics


"Be confident and mark your passage".. It was a gold expression. I always try to be the best in all

areas of my life. In my study, my research, my life and my relationship with my family, my

friends and my colleagues, I mark my presence with the best thing.

This advice has a good impact especially on my career. I'm thankful to my supervisors for guiding

me in the field of optics and photonics.

I always looking to increase my knowledge in the field of optics and photonics, attending

schools, workshops and conferences. I have several published papers: journal and conferences.

[...] Throughout my research and internships, I have acquired a strong knowledge of optics and

photonics and their applications in life science and I always try to enrich this knowledge. As we

Know all that the United Nations proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-

based Technologies (IYL 2015). I'm the administrator for the official page of the International

year of light (Light 2015) and the twitter account (@IYL2015).

Finally, I will finish my thesis soon and I will become the first with doctorate in my family.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? I was an active member of the SPIE Tunisian Chapter. From 2012 to 2014: I was the secretary and the vice president of the Chapter where I was involved in preparing and organizing many activities such as invitation of Lecturers, organization of schools and workshops, and Hands on outreach activities in secondary schools...as shown at www.tunisia-optics.org In 2015, I was elected as the presidente of the SPIE Tunisia Student Chapter. The first big activity as a president of the chapter, is to organize Lighting UP Africa with lasers, optics, and fibres workshop, in Tunisia from 15 to 21 March 2015. The workshop was targeted towards graduate students, young researchers, physics teachers, technicians and university lectures from Tunisian and African universities. More than 40 participants (from Tunisia, Senegal, Egypt, Côte d’ivoire, South Africa, Nigeria, Turkey, Netherland, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Algeria) were introduced to novel, low cost experiments based on lasers, LEDs, optical fibers, photodetectors, etc. to build their own setup. The scope of this workshop is: + To promote appreciation of learning optics and photonics and to encourage further learning in this regard + To provide an experience of the use of the active learning method and methodology in optics and photonics, including the use of experiments and hands-on exercises, class and group discussions, and conceptual evaluation; The second most important thing is to invite Dr. Eugene Arthurs, SPIE CEO, USA and Prof. Philip Russel, OSA President 2015 to be with us for the first time in Tunisia. You can read more @ http://tunisia-optics.org/activities/activities-2015/ It was a challenge for me to be the leader of my chapter, work in a team and succed with our activity.

Yasaman Ardeshirpour FDA [email protected] Area of expertise: Biomedical Optics and electronics


The resume preparation section was very helpful.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? Social activities

Stephen Bauman University of Arkansas [email protected] Area of expertise: Nanofabrication for plasmonics/nanophotonics


One of the most helpful pieces of advice that multiple former professors have given me was to

not attend graduate school in a scientific field if an institution wasn't willing to allow me to do so

with some monetary aid. This helped guide me to graduate school, knowing that I was not

putting myself in debt to earn another degree. If no schools would have offered financial help, I

would have taken it as my cue to seek employment in industry.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? I think that the turnout we had at the University of Arkansas to come listen to our invited speaker, as well as the smaller group interactions we were able to have with him, was a huge success. It was exciting to be a part of bringing together so many students and faculty from many different backgrounds to learn from another professional.

Afsoon Soudi TandemLaunch Inc. [email protected] Area of expertise: Nanomaterials


Network, network, network

I think I can not put enough emphasis on this and the impact it has on one’s professional and

even personal development. It opens so many doors, generates many new ideas and develops

many more.

Through hearing and discussing different ideas and choices others made in different fields, you

begin to develop your own and there is no better way to do this than to network.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? I was amongst the founding officers of the chapter in our school (WSU) and I am most proud of getting physics students involved in such activities. It is a very rare practice at least in my experience to have physicists take part in events aside from their research and look at the bigger picture and be involved in career development events. We created the culture in our department and it still is an active chapter with different event throughout the year. Later on as a postdoc I was a member of INRS newly established chapter and help them with their events and activities.

Sam Butler Air Force Inst. of Tech. [email protected] Area of expertise: Optical Scatter


General Stephen Lorenz's leadership philosophy of "servant leadership" was excellent career

advice. He advocated that most organizations have their organizational charts backward. As you

move up in the organization, you have more people that you serve, not more people who work

for you. This great advice is applicable to anyone in leadership, and can be good advice to

people who are chapter officers of their SPIE chapter. Being in a position like that is an

opportunity to serve more people.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? In February, we had an opportunity to reach over 200 students during Engineer's Week, as young as 3rd grade and up to seniors in high school, using our laser propagation demonstration. Additionally, in May, we were able to present the AFIT laser propagation demonstration to all students at Baker Middle School (over 500 total students). Being able to help the next generation of students see the neat things they can do with optics and photonics is very rewarding.

Nathan Clark KLA-Tencor [email protected] Area of expertise: Systems Engineering and Optics


Work via negation and don't wait to be told what to do. Communicate to your manager all

options, your decision, your reasoning, what you are currently doing, and what is coming up

next.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? I helped start the SPIE chapter at the University of Rochester and the chapter is still going strong.

Dorilian Lopez-Mago Tecnologico de Monterrey [email protected] Area of expertise: Singular optics


The perfectionist will never graduate. I remember that phrase from my postdoc advisor. The

point is, it is easy to start a project but the most difficult part is to finish it. Specially in research,

you have to know when to set a deadline.

For my career choices, that advice helps me to organize my decisions. I was able to fix a time for

my postdoc and research projects.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? I was president of the Tecnologico de Monterrey SPIE/OSA student chapter in the period 2009-2010. I am proud to say that during my period the impact of the chapter was highly improved. The number of students members increased from twenty to sixty members. I promoted the Science and Art Fair 2010. We gathered kids of elementary and middle school from two different institutions given an estimated of 120 kids. This project received the SPIE education outreach grant and was in the top ten Laserfest events of the year.

Thomas O'Sullivan University of California Irvine [email protected] Area of expertise: Biomedical Optics


Choose people over project. In other words, when faced with a transition (be it career, or a new

project), the people you work with (mentor, team members) is more important than the project

itself. You could be working on the most interesting, innovative project in the world, but without

a good team and mentoring it is difficult to succeed. I followed this advice when choosing both

my graduate and postdoc advisor and ended up with great mentorship and training experiences

as a result.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? I co-organized the first Stanford University Photonics Retreat (SUPR) - an off-campus event that invited all photonics-related faculty, students, and staff across disciplines to a weekend of technical presentations and social events. The event was a great success by sparking collaborations and strengthening the photonics community. SUPR has grown into a highly anticipated annual event, having completed it's seventh workshop this year. I am also proud that we established a leadership infrastructure that encourages mentoring between senior and junior students to assure continuity in experienced eadership from year to year.

Christine Bradley College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona [email protected] Area of expertise: Polarized Light Scattering


I was once told that as we live busy schedules to pursue our careers it is important to set aside

time for self-reflection. It is easy to get caught up in the rush of school, often looking only at the

immediate future. Long term goals can easily morph into a fog if not frequently revisited. I found

this bit advice to be extremely helpful for my career choices in addition to goals in my life. It is

important to think about where your career will take you and if that fits the lifestyle you wish to

live.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? In 2011, I was one of seven students that started a large outreach initiative for OSC, which has become an annual event called Laser Fun Day. This free event was created to demonstrate various applications and properties of light to the public and is proved successful with its fifth event in February of 2015 with the attendance of 1,400 visitors from the community. This is an event that I am proud to participate in. It doesn't serve only as an community outreach event; it teaches students in our college to effectively communicate STEM topics to a non-technical audience. I love that it gives our students the opportunity to show their enthusiasm for STEM while also developing key communication skills.

Morteza Karami UNC-Charlotte [email protected] Area of expertise: Metamaterials


Networking! And doing what you enjoy most.

2. Describe one activity / event / outcome that you are most proud of from your tenure as student chapter officer. Why was it important to you? Organizing the first poster competition of optics and photonics at university, arranging technical workshops for students, and bringing in one of famous student optics conferences to campus.

Documents

1. What is the best piece of career advice that you have ...spie.org/documents/Students/Advice_from_Facilitators_2015.pdfon a project that concerned total internal reflection (TIR)