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There is a clear need in this country for strong consolidation and rebuilding of the self-organization of the technical professional communities. They have to accommodate themselves to the dynamic changes and evolutions of the contemporary society of knowledge. A clear reflection of these vivid processes is a formation of the Photonics Society of Poland (PSP).

Since the first half of 2007, there were carried out formal endeavors by the national research and technical communities of photonics to transform the Poland Chapter of SPIE –The International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE-PL) [www.spie.pl], existing since 1988, into the Photonics Society of Poland (PSP) [www.photonics.pl]. In the beginning of 2008, the Administrative Court for Warsaw approved the new research and technical Society. The headquarters of PSP is the Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology. The PSP has applied to the court for the right to start and run business activities. It will soon apply to be elevated to the status of a society of a higher public service. PSP has now more than 200 members, mainly from the academia world and from governmental institutes, and still too small number of members from industrial, business and administration communities. The PSP members originate from the whole country. The PSP is open for international and corporate members. The aim of the PSP is integration of the national research and technical community of photonics and undertaking important actions, from the point of research, technical, financial, organizational, business and political point of view, in the name and on behalf of the whole national professional photonics community in the relations to the industry, local and national administration, international partners, European programs, consortia and technological platforms.

The most important foundation of PSP existence is domestic activity and cooperation. It seems that by gathering relevant representatives of all national communities, the PSP has a chance to work out a common platform for the constructive actions of such organizations in the similar fields (with their permission) like: Polish Committee of Optoelectronics of Association of Polish Electrical Engineers, Section of Optoelectronics, Committee of Electronics and Telecommunications Polish Academy of Sciences, Section of Optics of Polish Physical Society, Section of Metrology (and Optics) of Polish Association of Mechanical Engineers, Polish Association of Synchrotron Radiation, Polish Association of Sensor Technology, IEEE-LEOS Chapter Poland, OSA Member Group in Poland, Student Chapters of SPIE, OSA and IEEE in Poland, Polish Technological Platforms in Advanced Materials, Opto and Nanoelectronics, Consortium of Polish Optoelectronics. The proposed platform of cooperation concerns mainly building of a practical industrial coalition in this country in the frames of operational programs, structural, topical, ordered and other European ones.

The international cooperation of the Photonics Society of Poland embraces primarily the SPIE Institute. It is also directed towards other societies of global extent like: OSA, IEEE, LEOS, EOS, national associations of optics, optoelectronics and photonics. The international cooperation includes also optics industry active in the European scale. An important role of PSP is supporting global photonics organizations in creation of a large federation of photonics societies. 

PSP intends to launch a rapid Internet publication Photonics Letters. The simplest way to start the journal would be by using the existing infrastructure like MYSPIE paper management and publication web engine [myspie.org] and a large publication database SPIEDL [spiedl.org]. These
systems are analogous to other interactive publication databases run by other societies like: OpticsInfoBase by OSA and Xplore by the IEEE, but also Versita Internet publications. A totally Internet based publication, without accompanying printed version, identified by on-line ISSN ID, would publish very fast very short, four pages in the length, research and technical letters, of the internal structure of the full length paper.

A strong area of PSP activity is organization, co-organization and sponsoring of scientific and technical conferences in the fields of optics, optoelectronics and photonics and related fields like: physics, simulation and design of components, metrology, construction of equipment, sensors, materials research, applications. The PSP would try to continue to organize, in cooperation with global photonics organizations and relevant photonics societies in the neighboring countries, the cyclic, large Middle and East European Congresses on Optics and Optoelectronics.

One of the most important tasks for the Photonics Society of Poland is to initiate the executive consortia, technological platforms, industrial groups, and participation in the realization of research and industrial programs financed from the national and European funds in the area of photonics. There are undertaken initiatives concerning continuation of currently realized programs and new actions for future programs in the area of optoelectronics for industry, environment protection, medicine, homeland security. The single aim is to look for concrete industrial results which stem from and then strongly rest on the local research efforts.

The area of PSP activity is technical expertise, business activities, cooperation with industry, linking academia to industry, cooperation with administration on various levels. PSP considers establishment of the Chamber of Photonics Experts, and cooperation with relevant chambers of commerce, industry and trade. The PSP continues a more in-depth recognition of the domestic market for photonics products and services. There is not yet observed in this country a strong and active process of formation of small and medium businesses in narrowly defined and highly advanced technologies. PSP. Via observation and analysis of these photonics market changes PSP would try to support the favorable components of these complex processes. PSP would try to be an active participant and a sort of intermediary between academia, where young photonics experts are generated and business and industry worlds, where they are to be efficiently and creatively employed. The aim is to provide innovative photonic products of need to the market.

Photonics Society of Poland is very close to all affairs combined with students and young researchers studying and developing photonics. PSP would always try to support students and young researchers by offering to them fellowships, research awards, creating employment possibilities. There will be continued a fruitful cooperation with Student Chapters of SPIE, OSA, IEEE. There are ideas to built own students organization. PSP stands for extending of the university curricula in photonics and related fields of nanotechnologies. It seems to be necessary to increase the number of promoted Ph.D. students in photonics in this country. There are now practical possibilities to internationalize considerably the educational models for Ph.D. students in such an advanced branch as the photonics.

The ceremonial Inauguration Symposium of the Photonics Society of Poland was held on 30 May – 01 June 2008. The scientific program of the symposium embraced a number of plenary presentations delivered by the key experts in some of the most current fields of photonics. The technical program of the symposium embraced a couple presentations on the photonics community organization in Europe and in Poland. After the planary sessions, there was an award ceremony and a reception. PSP awarded a few key persons from SPIE for promoting the long lasting and fruitful cooperation. On 1 June, a delegation of both societies participated in a special student paper competition session in WILGA. The session was organized during the annual WILGA conference on Photonics and Web Engineering [wilga.ise.pw.edu.pl].

Photonics Society of Poland is ready to undertake a cooperation with every organization of public benefit, including local and national administration, industrial, business and lobbying, which has an aim of science and hi-tech industry development in Poland. The science development for the PSP means: chances for young, gifted people to fulfill successfully their own research career, creation of good working condition for the researchers, building of the modern research infrastructure, timely renewing of this infrastructure, creation of real and strong mechanisms of industry development, this industry which uses actively the results of applied research. PSP encourages individual persons working or interested in optics, optoelectronics and photonics to enroll [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ].

Tomasz R. Woliński, Ryszard S. Romaniuk, on behalf of the PSP Board
Warsaw University of Technology