INTERNATIONAL DAY OF LIGHT 2019
INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS ICTP, TRIESTE, ITALY

16 MAY 2019

Photos courtesy: Luis Roberto Lyons Suarez

MS. AUDREY AZOULAY, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNESCOMESSAGE FROM
ON THE OCCASION OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF LIGHT

16 May 2019

“ Do not destroy me before my time, for it is sweet to look upon the light. ”

In Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia begs her father, Agamemnon, notto obey goddess Artemis’ order to sacrifice her. Of all the reasons for staying
alive, for Iphigenia, the most important is the sweet contemplation of light.

Light here symbolizes life, and it is foremost among all other determinations.
Light comes first; light allows us to see the world. Its essential nature makes
light a central concern for all civilizations.
The importance of light marks the architecture of World Heritage sites: therose windows of Notre-Dame de Paris or the very structure of Machu Picchu,
designed in accordance with the sun’s path in the sky.
Light and its treatment are essential elements of the visual and performing
arts, literature, and human thought. Beyond the meaningful symbolism of lightin works of art, philosophy, or the human sciences, the conception of light, as
evinced in such works, has evolved as our scientific understanding has grown.
Light is a natural phenomenon which science has come to understand andlearned to use, and it plays an essential role in all the sciences and theirapplications. From the birth of the universe to the creation of all kinds of newtechnologies, from X-rays to radio waves, in fields as diverse as medicine,
agriculture, energy, optics, and countless others, light has shaped – andcontinues to shape – our world. By understanding light, we are able to achieve
the greatest of scientific and technological progress.
All its natural benefits and its scientific and technological applications makelight an essential part of the daily life of our societies; these benefits andapplications make light an important issue for the Sustainable Development
Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Particularly crucial are the issues surrounding electrical access to light as ameans of improving the standard of living in developing countries, and theissues concerning the optical fibre used to connect the world’s citizens throughthe Internet. The resulting communication networks can lead to more cultural
exchanges, more justice, responsibility, and peace.
The International Day of Light shows the importance of light in people’s lives,
its importance in all areas of life. This day was first observed last year in 87
countries. The International Day of Light is being celebrated for a second
time this year, and on the occasion of its celebration, UNESCO affirms its
commitment to the international scientific community and its work on thismost important subject.
										Audrey Azoulay

PROGRAMME

Photos courtesy:Lakshay Khetarpal

ILLUMINATING EDUCATIONREGISTRATION 09:00-10:00

SCIENCE & DEVELOPMENT SESSION 14:00-16:15

OPENING SESSION 10:00-11:20

LIGHTING AND THE FUTURE 14:00-15:10

WELCOME ADDRESSES 10:00-10:15
Fernando Quevedo
Director of ICTP
Roberta Ramponi
President of the International Commission for Optics(ICO)

OVERVIEW 10:15-10:25
John Dudley from the International Day of Light Steering
Committee, will deliver a short introduction to thegeneral Aims of the International Day of Light.

OPTICA FANTASTICA 10:25-11:20
Sir Michael Berry, University of Bristol and ICTP
Distinguished Lecturer will deliver a keynote presentation
entitled Optica Fantastica, structured around a series ofimages to illuminate the physics of light, a topic ideallysuited to engage interest and promote science outreachto the public of all ages.

OUTREACH & COMMUNICATION 11:20-12:30
Stephen Pompea, National Optical Astronomy
Observatory, will discuss Astronomy Public
Engagement, based on the many activities originating
during the International Year of Astronomy 2009 andthe legacy actions taking place during the International
Astronomical Union’s 100th anniversary in 2019.
Rachel Won, International Editor of Nature Photonics,
will talk on a Career in Science Communications,discussing her experience as scientific journal editor andthe general prospects for getting into science publishing.
Federica Beduini, Outreach and Science Communicatorat ICFO, will talk on Participatory Science and the Big Bell
Test, a worldwide citizen science experiment that led toover 100,000 people participating in state-of-the art testsof quantum physics.

LUNCH & NETWORKING 12:30-14:00

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This session will consist of a series of short presentations
addressing diverse challenges for science and education.
Amongst the topics to be covered will be photonics
for sustainable development, the need for improved
awareness of lighting quality, and education andsustainability initiatives in the public and private sector.
Participants include: Sandro Scandolo from ICTP;
Krisinda Plenkovich, SPIE; Brian Liebel, Illuminating
Engineering Society; John O’Hagan, CIE;
David Sampson, University of Surrey; Prajna Khanna,Signify Foundation.

DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES 15:10-15:55
Cather Simpson, University of Auckland, will present
a Keynote Talk on Using Physics to Feed the Planet,
explaining how a greater understanding of light ischanging the way we grow food.

DISAPPEARING IN THE DARK 15:55-16:05
Introduced by Jason Socrates Bardi from the American
Institute of Physics (AIP) and John Taylor from The
Optical Society (OSA), we preview a new documentarypremiering in 2019 on an art installation in Washington,
D.C. that opened on the first International Day of Light.

IMAGES FROM THE ROOF OF THE
WORLD 16:05-16:15
Saurabh Narang, an award-winning photographer from
India will describe his photography in the Himalayan
villages of Spiti Valley and the first International Day ofLight celebration at the highest village in the world.

COFFEE & NETWORKING 16:15-16:45

INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR THEORETICAL PHYSICS ICTP, TRIESTE, ITALY
CAREER CHALLENGES 16:45-17:35
Jess Wade, Imperial College London will discuss her
work on challenging stereotypes, the Institute of Physics
efforts to improve gender balance in physics classrooms,
and to celebrate the theme of the International Day
of Light, she will also describe her research on nextgeneration OLEDs.
Amna Abdalla Mohammed Khalid, vice-chair of the
Next Einstein forum (NEF) Executive Committee, will
deliver a presentation on the Aims and Objectivesof the NEF community of scientists in creating aunified African scientific identity to enable the robust
scientific transformation of Africa through fostering anenvironment for innovative scientific discovery.

STUDENTS & SOCIETIES SESSION 17:35-18:50
This session will see presentations by student
representatives from international networks of EPS,
IEEE, OSA, SPIE, IAPS. Presentations will cover broad
topics, including science outreach and how students see
their careers in the future.
Participants include: Ezabo Baron (IEEE PS); Roberta
Caruso (EPS); Xiang Dino Dai (OSA); Perla Marlene Viera
González (SPIE); Duarte Graça (IAPS); Kithinji Muriungi(IEEE PS); Artemis Tsimperi (IAPS).

CLOSING REMARKS 18:50-18:55
Joseph Niemela
ICTP & International Day of Light Steering Committee

RECEPTION & NETWORKING 18:55-21:00
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF LIGHT
The International Day of Light is an annual observance of
UNESCO promoting the importance of light and lightbased technologies in science, education and culture.
It is managed by an international multi-partner Steering
Committee & the UNESCO International Basic Sciences
Programme.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
We would like to thank all the speakers in our thematic sessions for their commitment and participation in theInternational Day of Light. Brief biographies are listed below in alphabetical order.

Jason Socrates Bardi
Jason Socrates Bardi, M.A., M.A., is news director
at the American Institute of Physics in College
Park, Maryland outside Washington D.C.
He leads the editorially-independent
nonprofit news service Inside Science(www.insidescience.org), a syndicator of sciencejournalism for the general public. A writer, photographer anddocumentary filmmaker by training, Bardi reports on thephysics of food, health, neuroscience and the use of sound andlight-based technologies to solving pressing human problems.
He holds graduate degrees in science writing and molecularbiophysics from Johns Hopkins University and is and author of
two general-audience books on science history: “The Calculus
Wars” (2006) and “The Fifth Postulate” (2009).

Ezabo Baron
Ezabo Baron is a computer scientist withspecialty in artificial intelligence and former
Robotics Research Coordinator at Nakawa
VTI, an institution under Ministry of Educationand Sports Uganda. He was responsible forleading a team of innovators from the instituteto the Annual East Africa Robotics Challenge Cup held in
Nairobi, Kenya an initiative of Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA). He is the current Secretary for IEEE Uganda
Section, a member of IEEE Photonics Society (PS), Robotics
and Automation Society (RAS), Antennas and Propagation
Society (AP-S). In physics he is passionate in Optical Sensors,
Optocouplers and Photovoltaic technologies that he enjoys toapply in physical computing and internet of things.

Federica Beduini
Federica Beduini is part of ICFO’s outreachteam, coordinating educational activities tospread the passion for light and photonics
among young students. She was born andeducated in Italy, but in 2009 she moved
to ICFO, where she obtained her PhD afterworking many years in experimental quantum
physics. Among many other programs, she organises the Young
Photonic Congress, which takes place every year in ICFO andwhere students from across Catalonia come to present theirphotonics projects to other students as well as to investigatorsof ICFO. She was one of the coordinators of the citizens science
experiment The Big Bell Test, in which more than 100.000
people participated in a macro experiment of quantum physics
at the international level.

Sir Michael Berry
Sir Michael Berry is a theoretical physicist
at the University of Bristol, where he has
been for more than twice as long as he has
not. His research centres on the relations
between physical theories at different levelsof description (classical and quantum physics,
ray optics and wave optics...). In addition to these deeply
mathematical studies, he also delights in finding familiar
phenomena illustrating deep concepts – the arcane in themundane: rainbows, the sparkling of the sun on the sea,
twinkling starlight, polarized light in the sky.

Roberta Caruso
Roberta Caruso is first-year post-doc at
Università di Napoli Federico II, where she got
her Ph.D. in 2018, after defending her thesis on
hybrid Josephson junctions. She is the chair of
the Young Minds (YM) project of the European
Physical Society since May 2018, coordinating
the activities of 57 Sections in 30 countries. She has been partof the project since its foundation in 2010, organizing outreachand science communication events within the YM Naples localgroup. Also, she had managed several local projects during her
Bachelor and Master studies.

Xiang Dai
Xiang Dai is a senior student from the electrooptical department at Changchun Universityof Science and Technology (CUST). He will
pursue his study in computational optics atthe biomedical engineering department ofDuke University. He served as the vice presidentof The Optical Society (OSA) student chapter of CUST (2017).
During his tenure, he successfully applied to hold the 2018
International OSA Network of Students Conference (IONS)
in Changchun and worked as the conference secretary. And
he helped to build up an annual network meeting with theother student chapters located in Changchun. Under his
active promotion, his student chapter achieved long-termcooperation in 2018 with Changchun China optics science andTechnology Museum in science outreach, from regular youth
education to public speech.

John DudleyJohn Dudley is Chair of the International Day
of Light Steering Committee. He was bornand educated in New Zealand but is currently
Professor of Physics at the Université Bourgogne
Franche-Comté and the CNRS Institut FEMTOST in France. His research interests coverbroad themes in optical physics, and he is alsostrongly committed to the public communication of science.
He served as President of the European Physical Society from2013-2015, and has received recognition as a Fellow of theEuropean Optical Society, a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellowof the OSA. He is also a laureate of the French CNRS Medailled’Argent, and has received several honorary degrees and otherdistinctions.

Duarte João da Costa Graça
Duarte João da Costa Graça is a first year
Master’s student in Physics at the University ofPorto, in Portugal. He has a Bachelor’s degreein Physics from UPorto. He holds the office ofGeneral Member in the Executive Committeeof the International Association of Physics
Students (IAPS), focusing on student advocacy issues andassisting other EC members, currently also managing IAPS
Public Relations duties. Also, he participates in the organizationof outreach activities by the Physics students nucleus of
UPorto - Physik UP. His main interests in Physics are Cosmology
and Particle Physics. He has an interest in Science outreach andcommunication, considering these fundamental for a healthy
connection and trust between Science and the general public.

Amna Abdalla Mohammed Khalid
Amna Abdalla Mohammed Khalid is vicechair of NEF community of Scientist executive
committee and NEF ambassador of Sudan. She
holds a B.Sc. honour in Physics from Sudan
University of Science and Technology and two
postgraduates diploma in general Physics andin Condensed Matter Physics from ICTP, Italy. She obtained her
PhD degree from the Doctoral School of Nanotechnology at
Trieste University, Italy. She is currently postdoctoral researcher
in Biophysics group at Georg August University, Germany.
Over the last six years, her researches focus on fundamental
biophysical studies of various molecular motors that play
critical roles in cell division. Those molecular motors arehighly expressed in cancer cells which make them potential
candidates for cancer biomarker (diagnosis) and cancer
therapies.

Prajna Khanna
Prajna Khanna is Head - Corporate Social
Responsibility/Director Signify Foundation. Her
education and early career in the field of media
and mass communications was associatedwith prime time programming for CNBC and
BBC, and was followed by a transition to thedevelopment sector with roles at Comic Relief and GreenpeaceInternational. Work at the Sustainability team at ING Bank
provided experience in the role that business can play inaddressing shared global challenges, and this was followed
by her appointment at the Signify Foundation. Her work at
Signify addresses directly the global challenge that almost one
billion people in the world have no access to electric light atnight. Her role is to catalyze the sustainable transformations
that enhance the quality of people’s lives, by simply enabling
consistent access to quality light replacing harmful smoky fuels,
candles, kerosene, wood or coal.

Brian Liebel
Brian Liebel is the Director of Standards andResearch for the Illuminating Engineering
Society (IES). He is a Professional Engineer
with degrees in Architectural Engineeringand Environmental Design, recognized forhis work in lighting design, electrical andcontrols engineering, lighting education, and light and visionresearch. His research specialization is the effect of light
spectral power distribution on human vision, and how recent
discoveries point to a new paradigm to supplant our existing
100-year old photometric measurement system. In his current
role, he guides the IES Standards process and advocates forcollaboration between all lighting organizations, for a global
and unified approach to addressing lighting education andresearch.

Kithinji Muriungi
Kithinji Muriungi is an Electrical & Electronics
Engineering Bachelors student at Moi
University, Kenya (Awaiting graduation). He is a
Mentor, Global Leader, and a Tech-Enthusiast:
IEEE Outstanding Volunteer & Global-TopRecruiter Awardee in March 2018. He is thepioneer of IEEE Moi University Student Branch. He also serves
as theIEEE Student Representative - Kenya Section, IEEE
Photonics Society Membership Development & Outreach
Volunteer, and Equity Group Foundation - Wings2Fly volunteer
mentor. He has previously volunteered and worked in different
capacities with Safaricom PLC, KAA, IBM, SPEED, and Huawei.
He aims at creating a lasting impact on the youths and theupcoming generations to provide societal-based solutions
which are innovative and entrepreneurial through education &science, cutting-edge technologies, and service to humanity.

Saurabh Narang
Saurabh Narang is an award-winningphotographer and an ex-banker based out of
Delhi, India. Over the years, he has worked with
Fortune 500 companies, renowned NGOs, andgovernment organisations all across the world.
Some of his work has been published in various
reputed newspapers and journals worldwide.
Throughout the years, Saurabh has chased beautiful night skies
in remote villages, has almost been drowned in the Andamans
Sea and has survived a deathly wild-bee attack at a hamlet in
Madhya Pradesh — keeping true to his belief in the importanceof “living the story.” Awards include: India Unexplored by Lonely
Planet 2014, Sony Alpha Stories Award 2015, HIPA 2017-18(Finalist), and IPF Portrait Prize 2018.

Joseph Niemela
Joseph Niemela is a senior research scientist(retired) at the Abdus Salam ICTP and a
consultant in UNESCO’s Natural Sciences
Sector. In addition to conducting research inareas of fluid turbulence and low temperaturephysics, he also directs UNESCO’s teachertraining program in optics and photonics. He serves as
Chair of the European Physical Society’s Group Physics forDevelopment, Treasurer of the International Commission for
Optics, and Secretary of IUPAP C13 commission, as well as amember of the Scientific Council of Centro Fermi. He is a Fellowof the American Physical Society and a recipient of its DwightNicholson Medal in 2016.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIESJohn O’HaganJohn O’Hagan is Director of Division 6“Photobiology and Photochemistry” of theInternational Commission on Illumination. He
works for Public Health England, heading theLaser and Optical Radiation Dosimetry Group,
and is a Visiting Professor at Loughborough
University. His research interests cover both
the detrimental and beneficial effects of optical radiation on
people. He is on the Scientific Expert Group of the International
Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, is assisting
the World Health Organization on Basic Safety Standards for
non-ionizing radiation and is on a number of national andinternational standards committees covering optical radiation
safety and the beneficial effects of light. He is a Fellow of theInstitute of Physics and the Laser Institute of America.

Krisinda Plenkovich
Krisinda Plenkovich is the Director for
Education and Community Services at SPIE, theInternational Society for Optics and Photonics
where she oversees Education, Outreach,
Membership and Public Policy activities. She
manages strategic initiatives for SPIE andrepresents the Society on a number of collaborative national
and international projects including the International Day ofLight, ScienceCounts and the US National Photonics Initiative.
She is a graduate of Western Washington University with over
25 years of experience in organizational development and nonprofit management.

Stephen Pompea
Stephen Pompea is the Observatory Scientistof the U.S. National Optical Astronomy
Observatory in Tucson, Arizona and La
Serena, Chile, serving as Program Head of
Education and Public Outreach. He has
led many large national and international
science education projects including
Hands-On Optics, Galileoscope, Project STEAM: Colors of
Nature, and now the Einstein Schools Programme (withthe International Astronomical Union and Leiden University).
He has received recognition as a Fellow and prize winner forhis science education work from The Optical Society (OSA),SPIE–The International Society for Optics and Photonics,
and the American Association of Physics Teachers. He is an
Adjunct Professor of Optical Sciences and of Astronomy at the
University of Arizona.

Fernando Quevedo
Fernando Quevedo, a Guatemalan national,
was appointed director of ICTP in October
2009. Dr. Quevedo is a well-known theoreticalparticle physicist with wide-ranging researchinterests in string theory, phenomenology andcosmology. He was awarded the 1998 ICTP Prizein recognition of his important contributions tosuperstring theory. In addition to receiving the ICTP Prize, Dr.
Quevedo has received various honours including Doctorates
Honoris Causa from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
and the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, the Royal
Society Wolfson Merit Award and the John Simon Guggenheim
Foundation Fellowship. He was born in 1956 in Costa Ricaand obtained early education in Guatemala. He obtained his
PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 1986 under thesupervision of Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg. Following
a string of research appointments at CERN, Switzerland,
McGill University in Canada, Institut de Physique in Neuchatel,
Switzerland, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA,as well as a brief term as professor of physics at the UNAM
(Mexican National Autonomous University), Mexico, Dr. Quevedo
joined the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical
Physics at the University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998, where he iscurrently Professor of Theoretical Physics and Fellow of Gonvilleand Caius College. Dr. Quevedo leads a research group on
String Phenomenology and Cosmology at ICTP.

Roberta Ramponi
Roberta Ramponi is the director of the Institutefor Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the
Italian National Research Council and full
professor of Physics at the Politecnico di Milano.
She has been the President of the European
Optical Society in 2006-2008 and is currently
the President of the International Commission for Optics and amember of the Executive Board of the European Public Private
Partnership Photonics21. She is the co-author of more than 150
scientific papers. Her research activity includes integrated andnonlinear optics, photonic circuits for quantum optics, andmicro-optofluidic devices for biomedical and environmental
sensing. She is also engaged in several national andinternational programs for the promotion and dissemination of
Optics and Photonics.

David Sampson
David Sampson is the Vice-Provost, Research& Innovation, at the University of Surrey, United
Kingdom and head, Optical+Biomedical
Engineering Laboratory, Department ofElectrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering,
University of Western Australia. He is activein the global optics & photonics community,
as elected Director of the SPIE – The International Society for
Optics & Photonics (2017-2019), and is a fellow of SPIE, OSA,
and IEEE. He has conducted research for nearly thirty years
in photonics, optics, and microscopy, with applications incommunications and biomedicine. He is an authority in opticalcoherence tomography, its implementation in endoscopes
and needles, extensions such as elastography, angio- andlymphangiography and polarisation-sensitive contrast, andtranslational applications in burns, airways and cancer.

Sandro Scandolo
Sandro Scandolo is a computational physicist
studying the behavior of materials at thenanoscale. He co-developed one of the mostpopular softwares for quantum materials
chemistry (Quantum-Espresso). He has been
professor of condensed matter physics at theInternational School for Advanced Studies and visiting researcher
at Princeton University. He received the J.C. Jamieson prize in1998 and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society since 2016.
His research papers have received more than 19,000 citations.
He is currently the Head of Scientific Programmes and Outreachat the “Abdus Salam” International Centre for Theoretical Physics(ICTP), a UNESCO Category 1 Institute.

Cather Simpson
Cather Simpson is a Professor of Physics
and Chemical Sciences at the University of
Auckland. There, she started the Photon
Factory, a laser centre whose mission is to
exploit exotic, ultrashort pulsed lasers toenable cross-disciplinary research from thefundamental to the applied. Cather’s research explores how
materials convert light into more useful forms of energy.
Agriculture is a recent focus, where her work has led to twointernational award winning companies. Recent accolades
include an Ako Aotearoa Tertiary Teaching Excellence award(2013) and in 2016 she won the Silicon Valley Forum 1st-place
AgTech medal, was named Primary Industries Champion,
Baldwins Researcher Entrepreneur and BNZ Supreme ResearchCommercialisation winner. She is a Fellow of the Royal Societyof New Zealand Te Apārangi and former President of the New
Zealand Institute of Physics.

John Taylor
John Taylor is the Director of the Executive
Office at The Optical Society (OSA). He
manages programs for community andpublic engagement and supports thesociety’s strategic initiatives. He participates
as a staff liaison to the International Day
of Light Steering Committee and works to ensure that thecelebration communicates that optics and photonics is theenabling technology of the 21st century to the day’s growing
following and the public. For the inaugural day of light in
2018, he coordinated the collaboration of OSA, the American
Physical Society (APS) and American Institute of Physics (AIP)
with ARTECHOUSE, a Washington, DC, USA, art space, todemonstrate the value of light science and technology throughthe work of the artist NONTOAK. The exhibition reached
20,000+ visitors.

Artemis Tsimperi
Artemis Tsimperi is a Physics student at theAristotle University of Thessaloniki, and she
is planning on attending a master program
in medical/biomedical physics as well. Herlove for medical physics led her to completea six-month practice in a local hospital doing
radiotherapy. Besides the work she is doing
for the University, she is also trying to be involved in otherextracurricular activities such as being a secretary in IAPS andthe Hellenic Physical Society as well as invigilating in local andHellenic physics and math students competitions. She was anactive member of her University’s Physics Society for one year,
and she has attended numerous seminars, workshops andsummer school’s both in Greece and abroad.

Perla Marlene Viera-González
Perla Marlene Viera-González is an Early
Career Professional working in the Universidad
Autonoma de Nuevo Leon (UANL) in Monterrey,
Mexico. She obtained her Ph.D. in January
2019 in the field of Physical Engineering with athesis about Optical design. Since 2011, she has
been an active member of the International
Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE); she was the treasurer(2011), president (2012) and (2014 – 2015) IYL-representative of the
SPIE UANL Student Chapter. Also, she has served as a student
committee member of the SPIE since 2015. She is the leaderof the Science outreach group “Física Pato2 FCFM” which as
conducted several events impacting more than 75,000 people
in 5 years.

Jess Wade
Jess Wade is a postdoctoral physicist at
Imperial College London, where she works
on new materials for light emitting diodes.
She holds a PhD and Master’s degree from
Imperial College London. She has been involved
in several projects to improve diversity inscience. Jess won the Institute of Physics (IOP) Early Career
Communicator Prize (2015), the IOP Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Award (2016), the Institution of Materials, Mineral and Mining’s‘Robert Perrin Award’ (2017), the Imperial College Dame Julia
Higgins Certificate (2017) and the IOP Daphne Jackson Medaland Prize (2018), as well as being named by Nature as one of
the 10 people who mattered in 2018. In 2017, Jess was the UK
representative on a US State Department International Visitor
Leadership Program. She is a keen Wikipedian, and every day
helps to upload the biographies of women, LGBTQ+ and POC
scientists – she’s made 600 so far.

Rachel Won
Rachel Won is the International Editor of
Nature Photonics, whose main responsibility is
to ensure that the journal publishes top-quality
research in all areas of optics and photonics.
She also commissions and edits news articles,
and writes research highlights, interviews,
editorials and press releases. Rachel is very much into science
communications and outreach activities, providing advice toyoung researchers and promoting thinking outside the box.
Before joining Nature Photonics, Rachel worked for Aston
University’s Business Partnership Unit in Birmingham, UK, asa Medici Fellow, commercializing photonics research. She
obtained her PhD from Aston’s Photonics Research Group. Prior
to that, she worked for Philips Optical Storage in Singapore as
an Optics Engineer. She holds a Master’s degree from Nanyang
Technological University of Singapore and a Bachelor’s degreefrom the National University of Malaysia.

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