09.05.2023

Visit of Optica’s Director for Europe, Dr. Claus Roll, at ICTER

On May 09, 2023 we hosted Optica’s Director for Europe, Dr. Claus Roll, at ICTER. It was a great opportunity to share with him the achievements of ICTER and talk in detail about the projects we are conducting. First, during the initial presentation, Dr. Andrea Curatolo presented the general goals and scope of the ICTER center, and talked in general about the research work carried out in the IDoc and POB groups. A detailed discussion of the ongoing projects took place during a tour of the laboratories. Piotr Węgrzyn, Wiktor Kulesza and Maciej Wielgo talked about their research on STOC-T. Klaudia Nowacka presented the results of her work on Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and the Pi-NIRS method. Jadwiga Milkiewicz and Karol Karnowski talked about the device they constructed (as part of the Imcustomeye project) to study corneal biomechanics. Then again Karol Karnowski together with Krzysztof Gromada presented the image-assisted eye microsurgery platform constructed in IDoc Group. Finally, Marcin Marzejon presented two-photon excited fluorescence systems for mice and humans constructed at POB.

During his visit, Dr. Claus Roll introduced us to OPTICA’s most important areas of activity. One of them is the activities of the Optica Foundation, one of the main goals of which, as Dr. Roll mentioned, is to inspire, support and mentor students and early career professionals who will be the future change-makers in optics and photonics.

Optica’s director explained the offer of scholarships, internships, grants and other activities aimed at the career development of young people. Of particular interest to the ICTER community worth noting are the scholarship that OPTICA provides, including the Chang Pivoting Fellowship, where individuals can apply for unrestricted funds to pursue a new passion related to optics and photonics, or the Deutsch Fellowship, a fellowship in partnership with the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The meeting was also an opportunity to talk about the CRATER conference, which ICTER is organizing in early September 2023.

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Text: Katarzyna Wybrańska, PhD – IDoc’s group Coordinator.

Pictures: Karol Karnowski, PhD.