Topic, "Using Light to Make Materials, Playing with Nanophotonics"

At 7PM on Wednesday 5 May, at Taste, in College Park, we'll have a fascinating discussion for you.

Fiber optic telecommunication, microscopy, lasers, holography, and optical computing are all applications that all depend upon the ability to generate, manipulate, and/or transmit light. At the fundamental level, researchers are advancing such fields by discovering more about how matter and light interact. Nanophotonics is an emerging field in which lessons learned from nanotechnology are applied in the development of new materials and devices for optical applications. In the speaker's work, he take that a step further: He uses light itself as a tool for fabricating new nanophotonic materials that can be used to manipulate light. In this talk, he will explore the field of nanophotonics and show how light can be used to make new materials that control light.

Stephen M. Kuebler joined the faculty at the University of Central Florida in August of 2003 as an Assistant Professor through a joint appointment with the Department of Chemistry and CREOL. Kuebler earned a BS degree in chemistry and a BA degree in German from Tulane University. He was awarded a Marshall Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Fellowship to pursue graduate research in chemistry at the University of Oxford. There he earned the DPhil degree for his studies of the third-order nonlinear optical properties of molecular materials with Professors Robert G. Denning and Malcolm L. H. Green. Before joining UCF, Kuebler worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech and later at the University of Arizona investigating the photophysics, photochemistry, and applications of two-photon absorbers. In 2008 he was awarded an NSF CAREER Award and promoted to Associate Professor. His broader interests include the physical and chemical properties of optical and electronic materials and their development for new technologies.

Directions

Taste
717 W. Smith Street
Orlando, United States
32804

Taste is near the corner of Princeton Street (really Smith Street after the fork) and Edgewater Drive, so about 2 minutes from I-4 to parking. One can park on the street or in the parking lot behind Taste.

From Downtown and south, drive north ("east") on I-4 through downtown. At the exit for Princeton Street, exit and turn left/west.
From Altamonte Springs and north, drive south ("west") on I-4 toward downtown Orlando. At the exit for Princeton Street, exit and turn right/west.

From I-4, drive a few blocks to Edgewater Drive. At the intersection, you should see a orange building ahead of you, labeled "Taste". Park on the street or behind Taste.

Electronic calendar of space-center launches

With President Obama's visits and new policy guidelines, future space missions look less bleak than they did a month ago. Even with our interest and proximity to NASA KSC, it's still not very easy to know when the next Shuttle or rocket will be launched. Chad put together an automatically-updating "iCalendar" feed, which most calendaring computer programs and most smart-phones can use to show you when and what you should expect launched from KSC.

The Internet location is "webcal://ksc-launches.appspot.com/". Consult your software or phone manual if you're unsure how to use that, or contact Chad via email for hand-wavy flustered guesses about how to use what you have.