IONS-6 Glasgow

The Strathclyde Chapter of the Optical Society of America (SCOSA) successfully hosted the the sixth conference of the International OSA Network of Students (IONS) in Glasgow, on the 9th-11th July 2009 at the University of Strathclyde. The conference brought together around 45 students from many countries including the UK, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany and Russia.

Our plenary speakers were Professor John Girkin, Chair in Biophotonics, University of Durham, and Dr. Johannes Courtial, Royal Society Research Fellow, University of Glasgow, whose talks were very enjoyable and informative. Staff from various departments from the University of Strathclyde, Professor George Stewart, Professor Rob Martin, Dr John-Mark Hopkins and Dr Gail McConnell, also gave talks to present some of the research that is currently being undertaken at the university.

One of the great aspects of IONS is that it gives students the chance to present their research to their peers by presenting talks and posters, and the quality of the research on display met the high standards that had been set by previous IONS meetings! Congratulations to Alexander Kuhlicke and Kevin Murphy for winning the best talk and best poster prizes, respectively. In addition, a poster session for student chapter updates and a company showcase (featuring ThorLabs, Thales, Coherent and Toptica) were also held wtih great success.

IONS wouldn't be IONS without social events and several events were organised. These included a drinks reception at Glasgow's City Chambers, a conference dinner followed by a traditional Scottish dance (ceilidh) a trip to a whisky distillery and Loch Lomond and a bus tour of Glasgow. Fortunately, the notoriously unpredictable Scottish weather was kind to us, and we enjoyed beautiful blue sky and sunshine on our trip to Loch Lomond!

Overall, ION6 was a great success with positive feedback from everyone involved. A special thanks must go to the organising team and everyone who gave talks and we look forward to many more enjoyable IONS conferences!

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