UB Center to Sponsor Photonics Workshop

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Leading researchers in the field of optical technologies will speak at a workshop on “Photonic Materials and Devices: Issues and Opportunities” to be held Friday, Oct. 24, on the UB North (Amherst) Campus and on Saturday, Oct. 25, in the Buffalo Hilton.

The workshop will be sponsored by the University at Buffalo’s Center for Advanced Photonic and Electronic Materials (CAPEM) and the UB Photonics Research Laboratory.

The workshop is the kickoff event for CAPEM, which was formed last year to foster collaborations on campus between researchers working on compound semiconductors, polymers and novel conductors, including superconductors. Bruce D. McCombe, Ph.D., UB professor of physics and director of CAPEM, and Paras Prasad, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor in the UB Department of Chemistry and director of the university’s Photonics Research Laboratory, are coordinating the workshop.

The workshop is designed to bring together scientists and engineers in industry and academia who work on polymers and those who work on semiconductors to discuss their common interests in photonics applications.

Photonics is the information-processing medium of the future, which will lead to computers that can store and transmit information at the speed of light.

Registration, a poster session and a presentation at 5:30 p.m. will be held on Oct. 24 in the Natural Sciences Complex on the UB North Campus. Technical sessions will be held on Oct. 25, beginning at 9 a.m., in the Buffalo Hilton.

In addition to UB, speakers will represent the University of California at Irvine, Cornell and Columbia universities, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Rochester, Bell Laboratories, Wright Laboratories and Lucent Technologies.

Representatives from government agencies will discuss trends and opportunities in photonics research.

For further information, contact MaryAnn LaMilia at 645-6475.