Winter College Promotes Photonics in Life Sciences, Honors ICTP's Denardo

BELLINGHAM, WA--(Marketwire - February 22, 2008) - The contributions to optics education made by Gallieno Denardo, former head of the Office of External Activities of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), were honored at the ICTP Winter College in Trieste, Italy, last week.

The recognition took place during the ICTP 2008 Winter College held 11-22 February. SPIE is among co-sponsors of the annual Winter College, contributing funds for support of the Winter College and other optics activities, and provides ICTP with free access to the SPIE Digital Library.

Denardo established and administered optics activities at ICTP for more than 20 years until his unexpected death in July 2007. His legacy was remembered in the renaming of an annual optics achievement award and in the dedication of a lecture hall on the ICTP campus.

The award, made by the International Commission for Optics (ICO) and ICTP and as of this year known as the ICO/ICTP Gallieno Denardo Award, was presented to Mourad Zghal, École Supérieure des Communications de Tunis, Tunisia. Zghal was recognized for his original work in the development of numerical modeling techniques for photonic crystal fibers, microstructured optical fibers and polarization, and for his active commitment to the diffusion of research in optics in Africa. Zghal has published several journal and conference proceedings articles with SPIE. He is scheduled to speak on "Single-sided supercontinuum generation by high-order mode excitation in a photonic crystal fibre" at SPIE Europe's Photonics Europe event in April.

ICTP Director Katepalli R. Sreenivasan dedicated the Gallieno Denardo Lecture Hall. Sreenivasan noted Denardo's many accomplishments and accolades including the SPIE Educator Award given in 2005 in recognition of his work in organizing optics and photonics schools, colleges, conferences, and workshops.

The ICTP provides research facilities for visitors, associates and fellows, particularly from developing countries, and presents international forums to foster research in physics and mathematics. Its programs serve several thousand researchers annually.

Theme of the 2008 Winter College was Micro and Nano Photonics for Life Sciences. The event will focus in 2009 on Optics in Environmental Science. SPIE's suggestion for the 2010 college -- Optics and Energy -- was seen as a timely topic.

Among participants at this year's Winter College were SPIE 2008 President-Elect Maria Yzuel, Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain; Kishan Dholakia, Univ. of St. Andrews, UK; Dan Cojoc, Lab. Nazionale TASC/INFM, Italy; Oscar Martinez, Univ. de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Vengu Lakshminarayanan, Univ. of Waterloo, Canada; Minella Alarcon, Active Learning in Optics and Photonics (ALOP), UNESCO, France; and SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs.

In addition to SPIE, Winter College co-sponsors include the Central European Initiative (CEI), European Optical Society (EOS), ICO, U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and Optical Society of America (OSA).

About SPIE

SPIE is an international society advancing an interdisciplinary approach to the science and application of light. Serving the interests of its more than 188,000 active constituents representing 138 different countries, SPIE acts as a catalyst for collaboration among technical disciplines for information exchange, continuing education, publishing opportunities, patent precedent, and career and professional growth. As the organizer and sponsor of approximately 26 major conferences and education programs annually in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific, SPIE provides publishing, speaking, and learning opportunities on emerging technologies. For more information, visit http://SPIE.org

Contact Information: Media Contact: Amy Nelson + 1 360 685 5478