New Information Listserver from SPIE

[Mike Grissom <mikeg@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

Radsafers,

The Society for Photo-optical and Instrumentation Engineers
(SPIE) has set up a new information/policy listserver.

The list is available to non-SPIE members and will likely
contain information of interest to laser safety officers,
photobiologists, and of course optics professional in
general (including x-ray/synchrotron radiation source
issues from time-to-time).

I included the first topic article below as an indication
of the general tenor in addition to the subscription
information.

Ciao,

MikeG.

----------Begin SPIE Invitation

INVITATION TO SUBSCRIBE
***********************

SPIE would like to invite you to subscribe to 
"Optics-Techpolicy", an electronic mailing list 
service.

The SPIE Engineering, Science & Technology Policy 
(ESTeP) Committee is pleased to announce the 
creation of an "Optics-Techpolicy" Mailing List.  
The list is designed to keep you informed on what 
is happening in the government policy arena
regarding technology matters that may affect you, 
your organization, or the field of optics and 
photonics.

The first "issue" of the Optics-Techpolicy bulletin 
follows this introductory information. You will not 
receive any further issues unless you subscribe, as 
described in the instructions given below.

In addition to creating items from activities within 
SPIE and other optics societies, "Optics-Techpolicy" 
will clip from a variety of sources, including 
similar lists operated by the American Institute of 
Physics (AIP), the American Association of 
Engineering Societies (AAES), the Council of 
Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) and the American 
Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE), 
in all of which SPIE participates. Items from 
countries around the world will be part of the content, 
in keeping with SPIE's international society status.

Subscribing to the Optics-Techpolicy mailing list 
means that periodically you will have selected news 
items sent to you. The list is a moderated, 
outgoing-only service, not a dialog mechanism among its 
subscribers. Therefore, there is never any obligation 
to respond or contribute; however, your contributions 
and suggestions for content are encouraged to create a 
useful resource for the optics and photonics community.  

If you wish to subscribe to the OPTICS-TECHPOLICY list,
please follow these steps:
1.   Send an e-mail message to: info-spie-request@spie.org
2.   The body of the message should read as follows:
     subscribe optics-techpolicy 

You will then receive a confirmation of your subscription 
by return e-mail. If you have any questions, please 
address them to Elaine Kilbourn (elainek@spie.org) at 
SPIE headquarters. Elaine will be the manager and 
moderator of the mail list, and is also the staff contact 
for SPIE's Engineering, Science, and Technology Policy  
(ESTeP) Committee. NOTE: you do not need to be a member
of SPIE to subscribe to this mailing list, so please feel 
free to forward this message to interested colleagues.

Ted Saito
1998 Chair, SPIE ESTeP Committee
****************************************************** 

Issue 98-1 OPTICS- TECHPOLICY  April 3, 1998
1. Dr. Charles Shank addresses the CPO on the status of 
the COSE Report

2. Excerpt from "Policy & the Photon" article by Dr. 
Theodore T. Saito, Chair, SPIE ESTeP Committee

3. Science Committee Examines International Science     
Collaborations

Item 1:  Dr. Charles Shank addresses the CPO on the 
status of the COSE Report

On March 16, 1998, Dr. Charles Shank, Director of the 
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and Chair of the Committee 
on Optical Science and Engineering (COSE) addressed a 
joint meeting of the Coalition for Photonics and Optics 
(CPO) and the Lasers and Electro-Optics Manufacturers 
Association (LEMOA).  The subject of Dr. Shank's remarks 
was the soon-to-be-released report of the COSE, a study 
committee of the National Research Council (NRC) that 
began its work in the spring of 1995 with the charge to 
survey the entire field of optical science and 
engineering and to make recommendations on technical 
innovations and organizational changes that were likely 
to have high positive impact on the field.

Dr. Shank cautioned that his remarks should be viewed 
as his opinions only since the COSE Report has not been 
released by the NRC.  In his view, some of the more 
significant topics that the COSE dealt with are the 
following:

* The importance of promoting and facilitating affordable  
fiber-to-the-home networks in order to get high bandwidth 
and speed global connectivity.

* The value of developing and utilizing new lighting 
sources and methods of distribution that offer factors of 
3-5 savings in energy.     

* The importance to U.S. national defense to maintain 
investment in optics R&D as well as to maintain a 
U.S.-based manufacturing capability for critical items 
such as aspheric, diffractive, and conformal optics, and 
certain materials such as IR-transmitting and  laser and 
nonlinear crystals.

* The need for a separately-funded initiative in 
organizations like the NSF for multi-disciplinary 
research in optical science and engineering.

* The tremendous influence of optics technologies and
instrumentation in nearly all sectors of manufacturing.

* The importance of increasing the activity in the 
development and dissemination of optics standards.

Dr. Shank noted that the formation of the Coalition for 
Photonics and Optics (CPO) was a significant event 
catalyzed by the COSE activity.  The CPO enables the 
entire optics community -- societies and trade 
associations-- for the first time to coordinate and 
organize their work for the benefit of the entire optics 
community.  [Editor's note:  One of the prime tasks of the
CPO is to disseminate the COSE Report and to coordinate 
adoption of recommendations made in the report.  The 
report is scheduled to be published by the end of May, 1998]

****************************************************** 

Item 2:   POLICY AND THE PHOTON: ...