Inauguration Symposium of Photonics Society of Poland PDF Print E-mail

The ceremonial Inauguration Symposium of the Photonics Society of Poland (PSP) was held on 30 May – 1 June 2008. On May 30, 2008 there was organized a working meeting between the representatives of both cooperating societies SPIE and PSP. A draft of the memorandum of understanding was discussed during this meeting.

The main Symposium sessions were held in the Faculty of Physics, Warsaw Univ. of Technology (WUT) on 31 May. About one hundred PSP members (of the total number 215) and invited guests from abroad have participated in this event.

The scientific program of the Symposium embraced a number of plenary presentations delivered by the key experts in some of the most current and hot 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 plenary sessions, there was an award ceremony, poster session, and a reception. PSP awarded a few key persons from SPIE for promoting the long-lasting and fruitful cooperation. The following persons were awarded: Dr. Emery Moore, 1990 SPIE President, Joseph Yaver, previous Executive Director of SPIE; Prof. Brian Culshaw, 2007 SPIE President, Dr. Eugene Arthurs, Executive Director of SPIE, and Prof. Mieczysław Szustakowski, Military Univ. of Technology, a member of the first Board of SPIE-PL in 1988, who received the 2008 Annual Maksymilian Pluta Award.

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). The awards for students were funded by SPIE (Report from Wilga in PDF format)

These are post-symposium hot comments of our invited guests:

Dr. Emery Moore:
Dear Tomasz,
It was a genuine and sincere pleasure to meet with you, my old SPIE-PL friends (Ryszard Romaniuk, Andrzej Domanski, Malgorzata Kujawinska,...) and newer members of the PSP team. …..
We would like you, all the PSP members and all the Warsaw University of Technology staff to know of our heartfelt appreciation for your very warm, generous and cordial hospitality. Once again you treated my wife and myself like royalty. We hope we are as deserving of such treatment as your actions seem to suggest. The impressive PSP award plaque which you gave to me is now posted on my desk to continually remind me of my friends in Poland.
Formation of the Photonics Society of Poland (PSP) seems a wise and timely choice which I hope will succeed at least as well as SPIE-PL has succeeded for the last 20 years. Both Brian Culshaw and myself have been very impressed with the quality of SPIE-PL's membership, past activities and publications. Both of us have passed similar opinions on to leading SPIE volunteers and staff for their consideration in establishing and coordinating future relations with PSP. The fact that many of PSP's leadership and members were previously members of SPIE-PL argues very well for the future of PSP. If there is any way that either Tina or I can be of assistance to PSP in the future, we will do our best to accommodate. Good luck and fortune for PSP's future….


Prof. Brian Culshaw:
…Thank you.
For your hospitality and organisation last weekend and for an enjoyable and stimulating couple of days, if occasionally somewhat exhausting.
We learnt much and were very impressed, particularly by the enthusiasm of the young people around (and of course the older ones as well).
And finally may I wish you all the very best for the future of your Society and if I can be of any help or assistance as the Society develops I will be happy to contribute in whatever way I can.
Very best regards to you all…


Prof. Phillip Russel:
…Many thanks to you in return for inviting me and for organising such an enjoyable social programme!….

Prof. Allan Boardman:
….Many thanks for the invitation and the kind words about my presentation. It was a very enjoyable experience. Your organisation of the event was perfect….

Janice Walker (SPIE Director, Events – watched the Symposium from Bellingham,USA):
…Thank you, Tomasz. We are glad it went so well; Krisinda just made it to the office and we had a nice report from Brian. They were thrilled with the experience.
Congratulations!!!