Western New York’s beautiful Finger Lakes Region, home to the nation’s Optics, Photonics and Imaging (OPI) industry, has won one of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Upstate Revitalization (URI) awards.  The award is worth $500M to the region over the next five years.  The announcement was made at the Governor’s awards ceremony in Albany today, December 10th, 2016....Continue Reading

Fire has affected at least four Northeast optics manufacturers in recent years, destroying inventory, machines and even entire buildings.Continue Reading

The Rochester Optics Community has lost a beloved member of our family.  Rick Nasca died suddenly on Tuesday night, December 2nd.  He was only 57. Rick spent his entire career at Tropel, and was optical manufacturing / finishing technology leader.  He was passionate about optics education and devoted a great deal of time to MCC’s program...Continue Reading

On November 4th the Thurigen Region of Germany hosted a lunch for RRPC members at the Strathallan. You may have missed lunch, but you don’t have to miss the presentations. Fraunhofer Presentation JENOPTIK Thuringia Investment ThuringiaContinue Reading

Kevin Rolland-Thompson, group director of research and development in optics at Synopsys, Inc., and Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester, died on 19 November. He had been undergoing treatment for a brain tumor. Highly respected for his work as well as his dedication to advancing the field and mentoring...Continue Reading

What will integrated photonics look like? In the 21st century, photonic devices, which use light to transport large amounts of information quickly, will enhance or even replace the electronic devices that are ubiquitous in our lives today. But there’s a step needed before optical connections can be integrated into telecommunications systems and computers: researchers need...Continue Reading

It was November 18, 1915 when nine Rochester scientists met at the University of Rochester: four from Eastman Kodak Co., four from Bausch & Lomb, and one from the University. “The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw an explosion in the Applied Optics industry. Companies such as Carl Zeiss, Bausch and Lomb and Eastman...Continue Reading

Rochester City School District Science Teacher Diane Eagles (RCSD School #46) was inspired by the International Year of Light posters at the Rochester Airport and decided to do a photonics project with her Optics class. Eagles gave her students a working definition  of Photonics: “Photonics is the science of light: the technology of generating, controlling and detecting light waves...Continue Reading

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the appointments for the board of officers to coordinate New York State’s significant financial investments with the National Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Integrated Photonics. First announced by Vice President Biden and Governor Cuomo in July, the Integrated Photonics Institute will help secure the nation’s leadership in emerging technology research, development, and...Continue Reading

And the action was not restricted to the Riverside Convention Center. Check out the SPIE Updates from the show here http://spie.org/x115916.xml?WT.mc_id=ZLIZ Several RRPC companies hosted tours during the week.  Jim Sydor of Sydor Optics estimates that they hosted over 100 people between Monday and Friday, with a shuttle running between the convention center and the...Continue Reading