Article Abstracts | September 2007
The complete article appears in the September 2007 issue of Photonics Spectra. If you do not have a copy of this issue,
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Attracting More Girls to Science: Hands-on Experiences and Mentors Are Key
OSA and the Girl Scouts team up to encourage an early interest in science.
by Elizabeth A. Rogan, Optical Society of America
When Thomas M. Baer took his daughter Christina to the annual meeting of the Optical Society of America in 1997, he never realized that he would be shaping the 14-year-old’s career path. At the time, her excitement centered on wanting to be a jet pilot and on the conference’s scheduled laser eye surgery session. She hoped to hear that a new technique could provide her with the perfect vision she would need to fly.
But once she got to the meeting, Christina was absorbed in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The announcement of the year’s Nobel Prize in physics coincided with the annual meeting, and there was talk that the recipient could be an OSA member. Sure enough, when the prize was announced in the predawn hours, member William D. Phillips, in collaboration with Steven Chu and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, was one of the recipients honored for his work in laser cooling...
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