Note: Topics for all episodes are subject to change. Episode 1 – February 15, 2022 Featured Guest: Jonas Zeuner, CEO, VitreaLab Segment Guest: Joel Rothman, UCSB Biologist Jonas Zeuner, CEO of VitreaLab, winner of the 2022 SPIE Startup Challenge at Photonics West, discusses his company’s glass-based waveguide technology. Joel Rothman previews the featured segment of episode 2 that introduces “Project Starlight” — an endeavor that aims to send invertebrate organisms into space via directed energy arrays. Technologies: Optics, Optical Components, Displays, Liquid Crystals, High-Power Lasers, Directed Energy, Extreme Environments Episode 2 – March 1, 2022 Featured Guests: Joel Rothman and Phil Lubin, UCSB researchers on “Project Starlight” We air our conversation with Joel Rothman and Phil Lubin, coordinators of the NASA-funded initiative “Project Starlight” that intends to place invertebrates on wafer scale platforms and launch them into space via directed energy arrays at 100 million miles per hour. The goal is to make assessments on the impact of interstellar travel on humans. The microfluidic chambers in which the organisms are to be housed, as well as the physics of the proposed laser system, are depicted. Technologies: Directed Energy, High-Power Lasers, Microfluidics, Extreme Environments/Space, Biology Episode 3 – March 15, 2022 Featured Guest: Bob Hess, Curator, Vintage Laser Archives, and Curator, "Vintage Lasers & Holograms" exhibit, Laser History Museum/Vintage Laser Archives, Tempe, Ariz. Segment Guest: Pearl John, Public Engagement Leader, Physics and Astronomy at University of Southampton Robert Hess is a laser and laser materials collector. His current exhibit at Tempe, Ariz.’s Laser History Museum/Vintage Laser Archives, explores the history and evolution of the laser, with devices and materials dating back more than 50 years. Hess, who also serves as director of holography at Satori Optics, and award-winning holographer Pearl John, discuss advances to the technique. Technologies: Lasers, Materials, Light Sources, Holography, Photonics Outreach and Education Episode 4 – March 29, 2022 Co-Featured Guest: Photonics Spectra Spectroscopy Conference Thought Leaders (TBD) Co-Featured Guest: Mona Jarrahi, UCLA Prof. of Electrical Engineering/THz Electronics Laboratory We speak with the experts who have helped curate the programs for the Photonics Spectra Spectroscopy Conference to preview the event and discuss the burgeoning field of spectroscopy. Mona Jarrahi heads the Terahertz Electronics Laboratory at UCLA. Her areas of expertise include THz optoelectronic components and devices, ultrafast electro-optics, and THz imaging and spectroscopy. Technologies: Optoelectronics, THz Spectroscopy, QCLs, Frequency Comb Spectroscopy, Spectroscopy, Biophotonics, Pharma, Devices Episode 5 – April 12, 2022 Featured Guest: Michael Hochberg and Marcus Gomez, President and CEO, Luminous AI Segment Guest: Koushik Viswanathan and Aloke Kumar, IIST Scientists Technologies and Topics: Silicon Photonics, Deep Learning AI, Optical Computing, Datacom, Information Storage, Optical Hardware, Extreme Environments, Sensors, Optical Components, Biophotonics Episode 6 – April 26, 2022 Featured Guest: Chandra Breanne Curry, Coordinator, LaserNetUS Consortium Segment Guest: Miriam Vitiello, lead physicist, National Enterprise for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NEST), CNR Nanoscience Institute and Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy Chandra Breanne Curry is the inaugural coordinator of the LNU Consortium of 11 high power laser facilities in the US and Canada, as well as a scientist at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Miriam Vitiello answers questions about applications for QCL lasing at THz frequencies and interferometric applications involving QCLs, and recent advances in graphene photonics. Technologies: Lasers, High-Power Lasers, Optoelectronics, THz Spectroscopy, Plasmonics, QCLs, Frequency Comb Spectroscopy Episode 7 – May 10, 2022 Featured Guest: David Boas, Director of the Neurophotonics Center in the Boston University College of Engineering Segment Guest: N/A Technologies and Topics: Biomedical Optics, Laser Speckle Imaging, Surgical Lasers, FNIR Spectroscopy, Neurophotonics, Biometrology Episode 8 – May 24, 2022 Co-Featured Guest: Jan Lagerwall, Head of the Experimental Soft Matter Physics Group, University of Luxembourg Co-Featured Guest: Francois Lagare, Scientific Head, Advanced Light Source Laboratory (ALLS) Technologies: Liquid Crystals, Liquid Crystal Sensors, Sensors for Machine Vision, Optics, Soft-Matter Photonics, Materials, Medical Wearables, Lasers for Medicine, Molecular Imaging, Ultrafast Lasers, Beam Control Optics