The first UArizona Museum Open Day was a huge success for all participating museums on campus! Two LOFT members, Daewook and Vipender, happily welcomed all the visitors with other wonderful volunteers. The Wyant College of Optical Sciences had its doors open from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. on March 23rd and saw many excited visitors interested in learning more about the mysteries and history of optical sciences. Once again, a special thank you to all the amazing volunteers who made this day possible! Learn more about the event and see photos here.

Our LOFT Ph.D. graduate Dr. Maham Aftab (at ASML) will give a keynote talk at the OPTICA Freeform Optics Summit on 2-3 April, 2024. We are happy to see that our LOFT graduates are continuing to advance the optical science technologies and share the knowledge with our community.

In October 2023, Stanford University in collaboration with Elsevier Data Repository, released the list which includes the Single Year 2022 Scientific Impact. LOFT group PI Daewook Kim has been included in the World’s Top 2% Scientists List. “The selection is based on the top 100,000 scientists by c-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above in the sub-field. The c-score focuses on impact (citations) rather than productivity (number of publications) and it also incorporates information on co-authorship and author positions (single, first, last author).” Congratulations to Daewook and the entire LOFT group members who have been publishing and sharing the research outcomes with the international society through various publications. More information is available in the official archive.

The Optica Publishing Group highlighted a paper published by Wyant College and UArizona faculty with industry partners, Nikon, Northrop Grumman and L’Garde. The paper “Modeling and Characterization of OASIS Inflatable Primary Antenna by Dual Modality Metrology” discusses the concept of a 14m aperture inflatable space observatory and its feasibility study focusing on the primary inflatable mirror. Read more here.

LOFT Master’s student, Rachel Turner, received the 2023 SPIE scholarship! We are so happy for her! She did great work with Michael Hart and now working on her Master’s research investigation with LOFT peers and Daewook. Please, read more here.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude towards Philoptics for their generous donation of a substantial amount of optical components and tables. Our collaboration with Philoptics over the past three years has been truly remarkable, particularly in the development of deflectometry for surface metrology in a high-precision fabrication facility. Through this project, we were able to achieve significant milestones, including the development of a cutting-edge surface metrology system and the graduation of two master’s students who worked on these projects. Additionally, we published several papers based on our collaborative efforts.

As Philoptics transitions to the next stage of industry demands, they no longer require the optical testing facility in Tucson. We are deeply appreciative that they have decided to donate this equipment to our group. We have successfully moved two optical tables, two workstation tables, and numerous boxes containing optical components. Currently, we are in the process of finding suitable space and organizing these valuable resources.

If you notice any inconvenience or safety risks related to the arrangement or stacking of the furniture, please do not hesitate to inform Heejoo. Once again, on behalf of the LOFT group, I would like to express our sincere appreciation for the generous donation from Philoptics. We look forward to the possibility of future exciting collaborations.

We are so happy that Mina Yoo (LOFT peer) received the Optica Women Scholars for 2023! “The Optica Foundation recognized the 20 Optica Women Scholars. This program provides visibility, community, and resources for women in optics and photonics via financial support, professional development, and establishing a global network as they enter the field. The scholarship is awarded based on need, academic performance, and demonstrated potential.”

Congratulations, Mina! For more information, please, visit the Optica announcement page.

Our LOFT member, Joel Berkson, was awarded the Student Innovator of The Year 2022 by Tech Launch Arizona at the University of Arizona. We, the LOFT peers, are so proud of him. You can find the official news release here.

Kevin Derby received the Best Student Presentation award at the 2022 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference in Montreal, Canada! Congratulations! LOFT peers are so happy for you.

Here are the announcements: SPIE website and SPIE Twitter