News Briefs (Feb. 8, 2006)

The Optical Society of America (OSA) has recognized Sen. Christopher Bond of Missouri and Congressman Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania as Champions of Optics for their efforts to promote the role of optics and photonics technology in highway transportation systems. OSA President Bond and Shuster worked last year on a bill reauthorizing federal highway programs, the "Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users," or SAFETEAU-LU. They were instrumental in including language in the bill to expand the definition of intelligent transportation systems to include photonics. Examples of optics and photonics technology used in modern transportation systems include cameras, infrared sensors, laser radar, variable message signs and displays. . . . The Nano Science & Technology Institute is launching The Nanotech Job Fair May 8-9 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, in conjunction with Nanotech 2006, BioNano 2006, MSM 2006 and Clean & Controlled Environments 2006, which will be held there that week. The Nanotech Job Fair is free to qualified job seekers; advance registration is required. For more information, visit: www.nanojobs.org . . . Ocean Optics of Dunedin, Fla., was recently issued two US patents involving its spectrometer technology. The first covers the composition and a method of producing high-reflection silver mirrors or thin-film optical filters that increase sensitivity in the company's spectrometers. The second is for tuneable variable bandpass optical filters that combine its patented high-pass and low-pass linear variable filters to create a notch filter with an adjustable bandpass.