OSA NEWS

May 20, 2005

William F. Ryan Joins OSA as Senior Director of Meetings and Conventions

May 20, 2005 ( Washington , DC )—The Optical Society of America announced today that William F. Ryan has joined its staff as the senior director of conventions and meetings. In this capacity, Ryan leads the team responsible for managing the organization's conferences and events, including the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC), which draws 15,000 attendees and 650 exhibitors annually. He will oversee a staff of 20 professionals and will assist in advancing OSA's strategic objectives and enhancing the success of the Society's member professional development initiatives.

With extensive history running conferences and events for scientific societies, most recently Ryan served as a member of the senior management team at the American Society for Engineering Education. In this capacity, he launched the organization's Annual International Colloquium, which helped to position the organization in a global marketplace. Additionally, Ryan developed an in-house system for conference registration and paper submissions, streamlining processes and procedures and resulting in cost savings for the organization.

Bringing this level of experience and past successes in modifying internal processes, Ryan will offer new perspectives and ideas to OSA. “My passion focuses on strategic planning and organizational development, but in getting to these end objectives, oftentimes, there are small changes that can be made to internal processes that may make it possible for the organization to expand offerings and unearth new ideas. I am looking forward to working with my team to identify these opportunities and see where they take us.”

“OSA feels honored to have Will as part of its senior management team. Both staff and OSA's volunteer community will benefit from his years of experience working with science organizations,” said Elizabeth Rogan, OSA's xecutive director. “Conventions and meetings as a whole are faced with new opportunities and challenges. Will is well prepared to help OSA deliver events that provide the world's best technical programming and business opportunities in service to those with an interest in optics and photonics.”

Additionally, Ryan's association experience includes a tenure with the American Association for the Advancement of Science where he managed meeting programs, specifically developing web-based speaker services to further customer service and expedite processes. Prior to that role, Ryan was with the American Psychological Society and the Coalition for Juvenile Justice. Ryan holds a bachelor's degree from Siena College in Loudonville, NY.

Ryan is also a member of the American Society of Association Executives, Greater Washington Society of Association Executives, the Professional Convention Management Association and the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives.

About OSA

The Optical Society of America (OSA) brings together an international network of the industry's preeminent optics and photonics scientists, engineers, educators, technicians and business leaders. Representing more than 15,000 members from approximately 100 different countries, OSA promotes the worldwide generation, application and dissemination of optics and photonics knowledge through its meetings, events and journals. Since its founding in 1916, OSA member benefits, programming, publications, products and services have set the industry's standard of excellence. Additional information on OSA is available on the Society's Web site at www.osa.org . OSA is proud to be a part of the World Year of Physics, a celebration of physics and the 100 th anniversary of some of Einstein's greatest achievements. Optics is the branch of physics that studies the properties of light. For additional information on World Year of Physics, visit www.physics2005.org .