Mon Jun 28
Two students from CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics, will accomplish their dreams while traveling the world through the Imaging and Light in Extended Reality (IMLEX) Fellowship program. Teodor Malendevych ’20 and Ilina Sunkara, a third-year undergraduate student, will pursue their master’s degrees in extended and augmented reality at three international universities in Finland,…
Mon Jun 21
An international scholarship that recognizes outstanding scholars in optics and photonic research was recently awarded to a graduate student in CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics. Kun Yin, a doctorate candidate studying virtual and augmented reality displays, is the recipient of the 2021 SPIE Optics and Photonics Scholarship. “This scholarship awards students from all over…
Mon Jun 14
Leaving his home in Romania wasn’t something Gabriel Popescu, Ph.D ’02, ever expected to do until the opportunity presented itself. Motivated by the chance to make an impact on the world, Popescu packed his bags and left home in 1997 to pursue an American education at the CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics. It’s been…
Sat Jun 12
I am pleased to announce that I have appointed Dr. David Hagan as the dean of the College of Optics and Photonics, effective immediately. Dr. Hagan is a distinguished Pegasus professor who has served as the college’s interim dean since December 2019 and was previously an associate dean for academic programs. Dr. Hagan joined UCF…
Fri Jun 11
David Hagan was announced today as the new dean of the College of Optics and Photonics by Michael D. Johnson, interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. Hagan joined UCF in 1987 and is a founding faculty member of CREOL, UCF’s renowned Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers. Since December 2019,…
Fri Jun 11
A deep knowledge of wave band sensors and a sturdy pair of hiking boots are both important to Roger Rose’s job. A self-described “underachiever” in high school, Rose ’21 MA failed intermediate algebra three times in community college. Realizing he needed a change, Rose made a life-changing decision and moved to Tallahassee Community College. There he met…
Fri Jun 11
Just as the governor announced the start of python hunting season in Florida this month, researchers at the University of Central Florida have published a first- of-its-kind study that shows that near-infrared (NIR) spectrum cameras can help hunters more effectively track down these invasive snakes, especially at night. The snakes, which can reach 26 feet…
Fri Jun 4
CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics, often serves as a launchpad for students to decide the direction they want to take their career and studies. And, often, it’s a distinguished and notable direction. That was certainly the case with Latifah Maasarani, who moved on to Duke University for graduate studies in biomedical engineering after successfully…
Thu May 27
Mistrust of the COVID-19 vaccine is rooted partly in its rapid introduction, the seemingly new technologies involved and the long list of ingredients with mysterious names like “N-ditetradecylacetamide.” But the purpose behind “monobasic potassium phosphate” in the vaccine can be understood with chemistry principles UCF students learn all the time, according to Professor of Chemistry…
Fri May 7
A new astrophotonics program launching this fall in CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics, will be led by an equally new faculty member, Stephen Eikenberry, Ph.D. While Eikenberry is a UCF rookie, he brings extensive experience studying the cosmos to the college, including credit for discovering one of the brightest and largest known stars with…
Thu Apr 29
The dawn of the Information Age and the advent of high-speed internet coincided right around the time Carl Kutsche, Ph.D., ’98, enrolled in the College of Optics and Photonics. “I was all about optical systems—self processing, information storage, 3D holography. You could feel the energy buzzing around the growth of this field,” said Kutsche, the…
Fri Apr 9
Pegasus Professor Martin Richardson, Ph.D., was recently admitted as a fellow of the Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS), one of only a handful of academics to do so. Richardson, a CREOL professor of optics and founding director of the Townes Laser Institute, was chosen for his “longstanding commitment to directed energy through globally recognized academic…
Fri Apr 9
The power of spectroscopy is proving a gamechanger for identifying pollutants in nature and building a career for Ty Olmstead, Ph.D., ’11. Olmstead was first hired at Ocean Insight five years ago as an application scientist with a Ph.D from CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics, supporting the endeavor. He was recently promoted to…
Tue Mar 16
The history and tradition of excellence at CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics, is detailed at length in a new publication from Information Display, the official magazine of the Society for Information Display. The article appears in the January/February edition, and charts CREOL’s origins in the 1980s as former Florida Gov. Bob Graham’s vision for a high-tech…
Tue Mar 16
A faculty member and an alumnus are among the newest class of fellows named by the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). The honor goes to Professor Axel Schülzgen, Ph.D., who studies and specializes in fiber optics. He is already a fellow in the Optical Society of America; his awards at UCF include the…
Mon Mar 15
A highly regarded name in the field of optics was recruited a year ago to CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics, for his expertise in multiple areas of research. Yehuda Braiman, Ph.D., brings more than 20 years experience as a distinguished research and development scientist at Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, along with a…
Fri Mar 12
A broad vision for scientific progress and the growing experience to bring that vision to life recently earned Ricardo Bustos-Ramirez the honor of CREOL’s 2021 Student of the Year. The Ph.D. candidate’s research focuses on chip-scale optical frequency combs. Potential applications include LIDAR measurements and the search for exoplanets. Bustos-Ramirez has co-authored and published over…
Thu Mar 11
Three UCF researchers working on different projects have been awarded a total of about $1.3 million from the Department of Defense. The grants were part of the DOD awarding of $50 million to 85 institutions across the nation in the Fiscal Year 2021 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program. The recipients and their projects are: Ayman…
Tue Mar 9
UCF is looking for the next dean of its College of Optics and Photonics. The college houses CREOL (the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers) and is known internationally for its education, research and industry partnerships. The new dean will provide vision and guidance that are integral to UCF’s advancement as a…
Tue Mar 2
Thousands of people are seeing more clearly thanks in part to the vision of Vadim Smirnov,’02 MS, whose lab played an integral role in the development of LASIK eye surgery. The LASIK team approached Smirnov more than 10 years ago with a request to improve the gratings that direct and tune the wavelengths of the…