| Image Credit: Getty Images |
The United Nations has designated 2022 as the International Year of Glass (IYoG). It’s an opportunity to celebrate the role of glass in art, industry and science. For the optics and photonics community in particular, IYoG offers an invitation to reflect on this remarkable material’s role in everything from lenses for microscopes and telescopes to the optical fibers that connect virtually everyone on Earth.
In a cover feature in the March 2022 issue of Optica’s magazine Optics & Photonics News, Optica Fellow John Ballato of Clemson University looks at the time-tested and special relationship of fiber, light and glass. Ballato explores the unique combination of chemical and physical properties of glass that have enabled the installation of a cumulative total of 3.5 billion km of cabled optical fiber on Earth’s surface and in its ocean basins. That’s equivalent to more than seven round trips to Mars.
Today, researchers worldwide continue to explore a wide range of exotic and exciting new optical materials. Yet Ballato sees many reasons for continued excitement about the light–glass partnership. “For the advanced fiber optic applications of the future,” he writes, “glass science and engineering are more important than ever.” |
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| Image Credit: Researcher Eric Numkam Fokoua |
| Jeff Hecht, Optica Fellow and freelance journalist, explains the concept of solid-core fibers, a better choice for optical waveguides. Learn how hollow-core fibers, has brought back an old idea. Optica Fellow David Payne, describes the attraction of hollow-core optical fibers from the OFC 2020 plenary. Discover how light travels. |
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| Image Credit: Getty Images |
| Take a walk-through history and learn about the journey how glass fibers carry signals and developed the communication process used today. Jeff Hecht, Optica Fellow and freelance journalist, explains this fiber optic communication process. |
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| Image Credit: Getty Images |
| Leah Poffenberger, Corporate Communications Manager, Optica, explains why the United Nations declared 2022 the International Year of Glass. Discover how glass is one of the important materials in the modern world! |
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| Image Credit: Optica |
| The 15 winners, from 9 countries, were chosen from an exception pool of Black undergraduate and graduate students studying physics, chemistry, math, engineering and optics. |
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 Image Credit: Yi-Hsin Lin |
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| Optica Fellow Spotlight |
| 2021 Fellow Yi-Hsin Lin defied expectations when she became a leader in Taiwan’s optics community. She is passionate about her work and says it “provides a great driving force.” In this profile, learn more about her career. |
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| Image Credit: AIM Photonics |
| Enhance your career opportunities with self-paced online courses in integrated photonics developed by MIT for AIM Photonics Academy. |
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