Optics is the study of light: its generation, propagation, detection, and interaction with matter. Optics includes basic and applied science as well as engineering. It is a multidisciplinary endeavour with its roots in physics, electrical engineering, chemistry, and materials science. The science of optics has a long history. It has occupied the minds of many of the greatest scientific thinkers: Galileo, Descartes, Huygens, Newton, Maxwell, Rayleigh, and Einstein.

Although the study of light has been underway for centuries, it is only in the last 40 years that optics along with photonics (technology based on the wave / particle properties of light) has become a dominant field, with impact in almost every aspect of our lives, from entertainment, to medicine, to defense, to communications. In the 20th century, electronics was the dominant influencing technology, enabled by optics. The 21st century is the “Age of Light”, a century that will have optics and photonics as the dominant influencing technology.

Photos: Omega Laser Fusion Facility, University of Rochester (left) Blu-Ray DVD (below)