SPIE Optics + Photonics 2019
SPIE Optics & Photonics is perhaps the conference I attend the most - I’m always guaranteed to bump into someone I know and the surroundings are stunning for meeting new people too. This year I had a few duties for the Optical Trapping & Optical Manipulation chapter; I chaired a session (very first time!) and also spoke about the prototyping work I did at the end of 2017 & the chip-fabrication I started in 2018 (with some very last minute results from our chip-test rig!). My talk and abstract is here (also conference proceedings).
I wanted to highlight how fulfilling a giant international conference like SPIE can be - and I’m not talking about chatting with that hot shot Prof, or getting all the free food. I’m talking about making career-long, if not, life-long friends - and expanding your knowledge beyond your niche research field.
One evening myself, Dr. Jess Wade and Dr. Nancy Aggarwal met with Dianna Cowern (aka YouTube & PBS’s Physics Girl) - Jess knows her and let me and Nancy tag along! It was so amazing chatting to Dianna although I probably got waaay too into chatting with her partner about LEDs on skateboards! Finding out how Dianna manages her schedule, how she sees the future of science communication & her relationship with YouTube was fascinating.
I also had a great lunch with Nancy and Dr. Janelle Shane - an amazing optics researcher and book writer (she messes around with AI in her spare time!). Janelle has written articles, given a TED talk and continues to de-hype AI. What is amazing is that Jess wrote Janellle’s wikipedia page ; although depressing that there are so few women able to attend such massive conferences that we all end up knowing each other!
Lastly I had the absolute pleasure of hanging out with Dr. Amy Parish and Jess at the San Diego Zoo! Amy’s research was the first to prove that bonobos live in a matriarchy (women led) - various zoo’s noticed that the female bonobos would attack the males but the main theory at the time was that they all live in patriarchies. Talking to Amy about doing research that goes against the grain and standing up for it was hugely inspiring. It was also amazing to see her bond with Loretta, the queen on the bonobos at San Diego Zoo - Amy has known Loretta for decades! You can read more Amy’s work here
Here’s a full rundown of the rest of my time at SPIE, courtesy of my twitter which seems to be more up-to-date than this website will ever be…!