Matter behaves very differently at extreme temperatures and pressures. Although extreme matter doesn’t exist naturally on the earth, it’s very common in the universe, especially in the deep interiors of planets and stars. Understanding how atoms react under high-pressure conditions—a field known as high-energy-density physics (HEDP)—can lead to the creation of new materials and give...Continue Reading

Registration Links BelowContinue Reading

Donald Ehinger and Paul Navik, as Vice President of Sales, Business Development and Marketing and Quality Engineer, respectively. Don comes to Sydor with more than 25 years’ experience in delivering optical solutions to the domestic and international markets, having most recently served as the Vice President of Sales for Navitar, Inc. Don holds a BS...Continue Reading

Monroe Community College (MCC) , the nation’s leading two-year college providing optician training, located in the heart of the nation’s optics manufacturing industry, learned of the grant award on Monday evening. MCC, the nation’s only community college awarding associate degrees in precision optics, does not produce enough precision optics graduates to meet the annual demand....Continue Reading

Not all the most interesting telescopes need to live in space. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will sit on top of a mountain in Chile some 8,800 feet up and snap 3.2-gigapixel (3,200-megapixel) images of the sky every 20 seconds. All told, it will be able to snap digital images of the entire southern...Continue Reading

Luminate (a program of Nextcorps) announced the 10 companies selected to take part in the second cohort of New York State’s Luminate NY accelerator competition in Rochester. The finalists selected include optics, photonics and imaging start-ups who were selected after pitching their innovative ideas to an advisory panel comprised of industry experts at the Luminate...Continue Reading

On June 18, Alexis Vogt, PhD, MCC Chair and Associate Professor of Optics, conducted an Optics Summer Institute for 19 high school teachers to prepare them to teach optics dual enrollment courses in their secondary schools. Dual enrollment courses are MCC courses taught in high schools, by qualified high school teachers.  High school students who...Continue Reading

What is really astounding (to anyone that has ever used Photoshop) is the viral nature of the argument about the blue dress.  Is it blue, or is it white?  The real answer of course is, “Who cares?”  But since the subject has caught the attention of millions, the scientists have to step in.  After all,...Continue Reading