The University of Central Florida in Orlando will open a graduate school of optics, making it one of three universities in the US to offer graduate education in this field. M.J. Soileau will direct the school, which grew out of the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers, of which he is director. The center has graduated 166 students with master's and doctoral degrees in engineering and physics and will develop a curriculum tailored to the rapidly expanding applications in optics.