Note: Topics for all episodes are subject to change.

Episode 1: October 10, 2023

Featured Guest: Tom Hausken, senior industry advisor, Optica

Description: Longtime photonics market analyst and current industry advisor Tom Hausken delivers his expert insights into top-of-mind industry trends and drivers. The prevalence of AI in and for photonics technologies permeates a conversation that also explores integrated photonics workforce development, government and policy perspectives, and technological competitiveness.

Topics: industry, government and policy, AI and automation, quantum, integrated photonics, optics

Host: Jake Saltzman, senior editor

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Episode 2: October 24, 2023

Featured Guest: Andrea Armani, senior director of engineering and physical sciences, Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine; Ray Irani Chair of Engineering and Materials Science, professor of Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, and Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California

Description: Andrea Armani, newly appointed senior director of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, identifies emerging applications for instruments in nanomedicine and labs-on-a-chip — and provides a framework for how needs in biomedicine are influencing the growth patterns for these devices and the biophotonic technologies that they incorporate.

Topics: biophotonics, sensors & detectors, spectroscopy, integrated biophotonics, imaging, optofluidics, medical, nano, consumer

Host: Joel Williams, news editor

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Episode 3: October 31, 2023

Featured Guest: TBD (SPIE Optifab Episode)

Description: Photonics Media editors Joel Williams and Jake Saltzman speak with optics industry changemakers in this episode recorded earlier in the month at SPIE Optifab in Rochester, N.Y. Insights from the exhibition floor and session presenters span a range of topics in optics manufacturing and applications, from space optics and extreme environment sensing, to advances in automation and coatings. 

Topics: optics, manufacturing, materials, coatings, consumer, sensors & detectors, test & measurement, imaging

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Episode 4: November 14, 2023

Featured Guest: David McGovern, senior business development manager at Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC [Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Photonics]) and deputy chairperson, Medphab

Description: A focus on the distinct challenges and barriers associated with commercialization efforts in the integrated photonics sector guides our conversation with David McGovern of IPIC. Streamlining the transfer of knowledge and technology for fabrication and packaging, as well as integrated biophotonics devices, are conversation topics.

Topics: integrated photonics, PICs, datacom/telecom, communications, consumer, manufacturing, biophotonics

Host: Jake Saltzman, senior editor

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Episode 5: November 28, 2023

Featured Guest(s): Jingyu Lin and Hongxing Jiang, professors in the College of Engineering, Texas Tech University

Description: Co-inventors of the microLED, husband and wife team Hongxing Jiang and Jingyu Lin, recount the early development of their technology and initial applications that spurred its rise to prominence. The duo also discusses current application drivers that have led to improvements, both in performance and manufacturability, as well as advanced use cases for displays. The path to commercialization is also discussed. 

Topics: displays, LEDs, microLEDs, light sources, materials, consumer, optoelectronics, electronics, optics, optical components

Hosts: Joel Williams and Jake Saltzman

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Episode 6: December 12, 2023

Featured Guest: Peter Lodahl, head of the Quantum Photonics Group at the University of Copenhagen/NielsBohr; director of the Danish National Research Foundation Center for Hybrid Quantum Networks; and founder of Sparrow Quantum

Description: Peter Lodahl, who heads Niels Nohr Institute spinout company Sparrow Quantum, overviews the company’s light-matter interface technology for quantum applications.

Hosts: Jake Saltzman and Joel Williams

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Episode 7: January 2, 2024

Featured Guest: Joe Shaw, director of the Optical Technology Center, Montana State University
Segment Guest:  Sanathana Konugolu, CEO, BioPixS

Description: Environmental monitoring and surveillance techniques offer a range of benefits for diverse sectors. In this episode, Joe Shaw introduces traditional and nontraditional sensing applications, with a focus on how each targets a pressing need while incorporating core optical and photonic technologies. In a second segment, CEO of BioPixS, Sanathana Konugolu, explains the role of the biophotonics “phantom” in technological advancement and standardization.

Topics: sensors & detectors, remote sensing, lidar, industrial, environmental, agriculture, agriphotonics, energy 

Hosts: Joel Williams and Jake Saltzman

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Episode 8: January 09, 2024

Featured Guest: Joyce Poon, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto; director of the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics

Description: Integrated photonics luminary Joyce Poon describes the “lab-to-fab” progression that integrated photonics technologies travel on the road to commercial relevance. Breakthrough devices, packaging techniques, and implications for optical computers are also discussed.

Topics: integrated photonics, datacom, data centers, optical switching, optoelectronics, PICs, photonic packaging, standards for integrated and silicon photonics, integrated photonic devices and nanodevices

Host: Jake Saltzman