Photonics Banquet 2022 - An Evening to Remember

On Friday, May 27 at 5pm, graduate students, UCSB professors, and representatives from 10 local photonics companies gathered for a night of food and networking at the UCSB Corwin Pavilion. The Banquet began with a recruitment pitch for the Photonics Society followed by talks from Thorlabs, Nexus Photonics, and Raytheon Vision Systems who are all major sponsors of the Photonics Society this year. Thanks to their generous support, the photonics society was able to host this event and many other small events at no cost to attendees.

After a bountiful dinner, Professor Bowers co-hosted a talk with all of the companies in attendance to provide an overview of all the photonics opportunities in Santa Barbara. The presentation slides from Thorlabs, Nexus Photonics, Raytheon Vision Systems, and Professor Bowers can be accessed here.​ In his talk, Bowers showed work from Quintessent, OpenLight (prev. Aurrion), Morton Photonics, OE Solutions, Aeluma, Freedom Photonics, Ultra-Low Loss Technologies, Mirios, and Nexus Photonics. During his talk he passed the microphone to several of the industry members from these companies, giving them a chance to talk about their work. Industry members were excited to be back in person for networking and several were actively hiring students at the event. 

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Thanks again to our Sponsors and Parent Organizations!

Learn more about our sponsors by viewing their presentation slides.

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Keynote Speaker - Dr. John Bowers

Learn more about Photonics in Santa Barbara by viewing the keynote presentation slides.

Dr. John Bowers is a world-leading researcher in the areas of silicon photonics, optoelectronics, energy efficiency and the development of novel low power optoelectronic devices for the next generation of optical networks. Dr. Bowers worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories and Honeywell before joining UC Santa Barbara. At UCSB, he holds the Fred Kavli Chair in Nanotechnology and is the Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research interests include silicon photonics and integrated circuits, fiber optic networks, thermoelectrics, high efficiency solar cells, and optical switching. He is a cofounder of Aurrion, Aerius Photonics and Calient Networks. He has published two books, ten book chapters, 450 journal papers, 1000 conference papers and has received 54 patents. He and coworkers received the EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award for Most Promising Technology for the hybrid silicon laser in 2007.

Member of : 
National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Inventors

Fellow of: 
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Optical Society of America (OSA), American Physical Society (APS), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Honors:
Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award, Optical Society (OSA); IEEE Photonics Award; Tyndall Award (OSA/IEEE ); IEEE LEOS William Streifer Award; International Conference on Indium Phosphide and Related Materials (IPRM) Award; Highly Cited Researchers List, Web of Science Group; South Coast Business and Technology's Entrepreneur of the Year
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Affiliations:
American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, Institute for Energy Efficiency

Education:
PhD Stanford University
MS Stanford University​

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