About This Webinar
Structured light provides the ability to tailor light within all of its degrees of freedom, including amplitude, phase, and polarization. There are many approaches to tailoring light, from using external tools that include spatial light modulators, geometric phase liquid crystal, and metasurface devices to at-the-source approaches that include bulk, microchip, and fiber lasers. Andrew Forbes, Ph.D., outlines the recent advancements in structuring light at the source, from orbital angular momentum and beyond. From concepts to applications, he highlights the current challenges and possible future trends.
Who should attend:
Engineers, R&D scientists, manufacturers, and researchers who are interested in structured light and its abilities. Anyone who utilizes lasers in his or her work and is involved in purchasing, integration, consulting, and education. Those in industries such as aerospace, defense, automation, test and measurement, medicine, and environmental research.
About the presenter:
Andrew Forbes, Ph.D., is a distinguished professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has at various times in his career worked as a teacher, janitor, secretary, receptionist, webmaster, systems engineer, sales rep, manager, director, and scientist. In his current position, he leads a laboratory for structured light. Forbes is active in promoting photonics in Africa, and he is a founding member of the Photonics Initiative of South Africa and initiator of South Africa’s Quantum Roadmap. He is a fellow of SPIE, Optica, and the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP). He is also an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and is editor-in-chief of the Institute of Physics' Journal of Optics. He has won several awards, including the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) national award for his contributions to photonics in South Africa; the Georg Forster prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, for outstanding contributions to photonics; the SAIP Gold Medal, which is the highest award for physics in South Africa; and the Sang Soo Lee Award from Optica and the Korean Optical Society. He has been announced as co-winner of the 2024 TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences) Award for physics.