President's letter: Building the future of SPIE leadership
With each visit as SPIE President, I am learning more about the various technical communities that make up the Society. Across the board, an SPIE event serves as a home to gather, reunite, and embrace newcomers to a particular field. In that, I am thankful for the opportunity that being President has given me to connect with people across the breadth of the SPIE community.
In April, I attended SPIE Photonics Europe in Strasbourg, France, as well as Advanced Lithography + Patterning in San Jose, California. The former brings together researchers across a wide range of topics from optical metrology to nanophotonics, with robust attendance by students; the latter brings together mostly industry folks presenting technical solutions in a singular area, with few students attending. And yet there were significant common themes.
Both saw people excited to be meeting in person again. Both were about connecting minds of like and complementary interests. The academics wanted to see more industry participation and industry wanted to see more academics. Everyone was passionate about workforce shortages and voiced interest in mentoring students and early-career professionals.
Spending time with these communities strengthened my belief that we all recognize and appreciate the large role SPIE can play in building careers across the diverse technology areas it serves. But I must remind everyone that the relationship between the Society and its Members is symbiotic. SPIE cannot serve the optics and photonics communities without volunteers, and we need more Members to engage and deepen their commitment to SPIE.
This means participating in SPIE activities beyond conferences. Governance of SPIE is conducted via Society committees. Each committee is dedicated to a different aspect of SPIE as is evident from its name: Membership and Community Development, Awards, Education and Outreach, and more. The spie.org website includes the full list of SPIE committees, committee members, and the charter of each committee (spie.org/CommitteeInterest).
I want to encourage each of you to consider providing your experience and wisdom to some aspect of SPIE governance. However, it is important to select those committees to which you can most effectively contribute. So I ask each of you to check out the website and then reach out to any of us in leadership (members of SPIE governance or specific committee chairs) as well as any of our SPIE staff and indicate your interest.
My goal as SPIE President is threefold:
First, I want to encourage everyone to nominate colleagues for a recognition or award. Please keep in mind that equity, diversity, and inclusion are part of the fabric of SPIE. Guidelines for each award or recognition are available on the SPIE website. I have templates for everything and am happy to share.
Second, I would like to build a database of Members interested in SPIE governance to help build the future of the Society.
Finally, I would like to encourage everyone to consider mentoring a peer, student, or early-career professional. Everyone is feeling the workforce shortage problem. Internships and professional development activities are critical to the future of our community, and we only help ourselves as we engage and build our future leadership.
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Anita Mahadevan-Jansen 2022 SPIE President |
