Page 2: Integrated photonics manufacturing center announced by US Vice President Joe Biden

Editor's note: This article is continued from page one.

Eugene Arthurs, SPIE CEO, along with others, noted the efforts to raise awareness that led to the establishment of the new institute.

"SPIE volunteers and constituents have worked diligently to raise the awareness of the importance of that has led to this point," said SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs. "It represents many demonstrations and conversations sharing data about the economic impact of the industry as well as personal and professional stories about how photonics enhances and even saves lives."

Arthurs mentioned the New Horizons’ newly-acquired images of Pluto as a prime example of the technological impact of photonics.

He added, "The AIM Photonics will lead diverse research toward the products of the future. If we pay close attention to retaining the benefits of the intellectual property generated at such facilities, the local regions and the country will benefit enormously."

Thomas Baer of the Stanford Photonics Research Center, and former chair of the NPI Steering Committee, echoed his sentiments.

"Today’s announcement is the capstone of the National Photonics Initiative (NPI) and the result of three years of intense effort by volunteers and staff promoting the creation of this newest and largest institute within the President’s National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI)," he said.

(Editor’s note: SPIE and The Optical Society are Founding Sponsors of the NPI.)

The development of this new institute is the culmination of widespread support in the photonics community, according to Thomas Koch, Dean of the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona.

"It has been gratifying to see so many of the major stakeholders in the photonic integration community join together to support this major federal initiative," he said. "We all believe that the capabilities that will emerge from this endeavor will be instrumental in driving innovation and strengthening the U.S. position in this vitally important technology. The applications that will be enabled by chip-scale, highly integrated photonics and electronics are boundless."

Pictured: From left, Thomas Koch (College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona), AIM Photonics Prinicipal InvestigatorMichael Liehr (SUNY Polytechnic Institute), and Eugene Arthurs (SPIE)

View the SPIE release.

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