BALTIMORE, Md., June 5 -- The CLEO/QELS plenary session Wednesday honored award winners and new fellows, featured a presentation on the new science of quantum information and celebrated the 40th anniversary of the semiconductor diode laser. The American Physical Society Division of Laser Science, the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society and the Optical Society of America (OSA) welcomed a total of 25 new fellows into their respective organizations. The OSA presented its Charles Hard Townes Award to David Hana of the University of Southampton, England, where he is deputy director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre. Hana was cited for his seminal contributions to the development of coherent light sources and for leadership in the worldwide optics community. The early days of the semiconductor diode laser were part of a presentation delivered to a packed ballroom at the Baltimore Convention Center at Thursday's plenary session, which celebrated the device's 40th anniversary. H. Jeff Kimble of the California Institute of Technology gave the QELS plenary presentation. Kimble presented an overview of what has been called quantum miracles in communications and computation. He stressed the role that research in optical physics is playing in the research, and noted several examples of activities in the field that illustrated ongoing developments. The celebration of the 40th anniversary of the semiconductor diode laser was provided by several speakers, each addressing a step in the evolution of the device. Topics included early research in 1962 at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, research and development at GE and IBM and the development of the first visible semiconductor injection laser.