Student chapter of Laser and Electro-Optics Society holds Inaugural Symposium

	Joseph Junio, Ph.D. candidate, presented a paper on optical trapping and micromanipulation.

Three graduate students recently won cash prizes in the IEEE/LEOS Inaugural Symposium of Lehigh’s student chapter of LEOS, an organization devoted to research in lasers, optical fibers, optical devices and associated lightwave technologies.
Joseph Junio, a Ph.D. candidate in physics, won first place for best presentation. Junio, who is advised by Daniel Ou-Yang, professor of physics, gave a presentation titled “Optical Trapping and Micromanipulation of Nanoparticles in Liquid Suspensions.”
First runner-up prizes were shared by Michelle Scimeca and Piercen Oliver.
Scimeca, a Ph.D. candidate in physics who is advised by Ivan Biaggio, associate professor of physics, gave a presentation titled “A High-Optical Quality Supramolecular Assembly for Silicon-Organic Hybrid Optical Switches.”
Oliver, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry who is advised by Dmitri Vezenov, assistant professor of chemistry, gave a presentation titled “Manipulation and Detection of Biopolymers Using Magnetic-Luminescent Microspheres.”
The presentations, which lasted 10 minutes, were judged by Thomas Koch, director of Lehigh’s Center for Optical Technologies (COT); Yujie Ding, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Michael Stavola, professor and department chair of physics.
Three other students also gave presentations. They were:
• Qiaoqiang Gan, a Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering, on “Trapping of Multi-THz Wavelengths.” Gan is advised by Filbert Bartoli, professor and department chair of electrical and computer engineering.
• Tetyana Ignatova, a graduate student in physics, on “Energy Transfer of Resonance Type between Rare Earth Ions and Carbon Nanotubes.” Ignatova is advised by Slava Rotkin, assistant professor of physics.
• Ravi S. Tummidi, a Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering, on “Anomalous Losses in Curved Waveguides and Directional Couplers at ‘Magic Widths.’” Tummidi is advised by Koch.
LEOS (Lasers and Electro-Optics Society): The Society for Photonics was founded in the 1960s under the umbrella of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. IEEE, with more than 365,000 members worldwide, is the world’s leading professional association for the advancement of technology.
The Lehigh student chapter of LEOS was formed in August by Tummidi, Chee-Loon Tan and Kang-Baek Kim, all of whom are affiliated with the COT. It now has 14 members, all of whom are graduate students.
--Kurt Pfitzer