2017 Ambassador Arlene Smith is a Product Engineer at Avo Photonics, Inc. in Horsham, Pennsylvania, USA. After receiving a BSc in Physics and Astronomy at the National University of Ireland, Galway, she started to specialize in Optics by earning an MSc in Photonics and Optoelectronic Devices from the University of St Andrews. After returning to Galway to research partially coherent light, she graduated with a PhD in 2011. More recently, Arlene worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Biomedical Imaging at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor before moving to Avo Photonics in 2015.

Arlene joined OSA in 2007 as a student member. She established the OSA Student Chapter at the National University of Ireland, Galway and was involved as an organizer for the IONS7 Conference held there in 2010. After completing her doctorate in 2011, she joined the OSA Young Professionals Program. As a member of the program, she has participated as a volunteer on the program committee for OSA’s Applied Industrial Optics Topical Meeting in 2013, progressing to a role as committee member and Program Chair 2014-2016. She has also reviewed grant applications for both the OSA Foundation and OSA Student Chapters program and assisted with OSA Student Chapter activities as a member of the 2012 and 2013 OSA Student Leadership Conference Planning Committee.

Arlene is the 2020 Chair of OSA’s Membership Engagement & Development Council and and serves on OSA's Board of Directors (2020-2021).   Editorial Advisory Committee for Optics and Photonics News. She is active in the Traveling Lecturer Program and was a General Chair for the Applied Industrial Optics Meeting in 2017.