Plenary Speakers

Stefen W. Hell, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen Department of Nano Biophotonics

Nanoscopy With Focused Light

For a long while, details smaller than half the wavelength of light (200 nm) could not be resolved with focused light. Today, Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy and related far-field optical approaches can provide resolutions < 20 nm, and in principle are able to resolve molecular detail.

Curriculum Vitae
Stefan W. Hell (47) is a scientific member of the Max Planck Society and a director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, where he currently leads the Department of NanoBiophotonics. He is an honorary professor of experimental physics at the University of Göttingen and adjunct professor of physics at the University of Heidelberg. Since 2003 he has led the High Resolution Optical Microscopy division at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. He is a member of the board of directors of the Göttingen Laser Laboratory as well as a member of the Academy of Sciences of Göttingen and Heidelberg.

Stefan W. Hell received his diploma (1987) and doctorate (1990) in physics from the University of Heidelberg (both advised by Prof. S. Hunklinger). From 1991 to 1993 he worked at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, also in Heidelberg, and followed with stays as a senior researcher at the University of Turku, Finland, between 1993 and 1996, and as a visiting scientist at the University of Oxford, England, in 1994.. In 1997 he was appointed to the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, where he has built up his current research group dedicated to sub-diffraction-resolution microscopy. In 2002, following his appointment as a director, he established the department of Nanobiophotonics.

Stefan W. Hell is credited with having conceived, validated and applied the first viable concept for breaking Abbe’s diffraction-limited resolution barrier in a light-focusing microscope. He has published about 200 original publications and has received several awards, including the Prize of the International Commission in Optics (2000), the Carl Zeiss Research Award (2002), the "Innovation Award of the German Federal President" (2006), the Julius Springer Award for Applied Physics (2007), Leibniz Prize (2008), the Lower Saxony State Award (2008) and the Otto-Hahn-Prize in Physics in 2009.

Professor Susumu Noda, Kyoto University

Photonic Crystal Devices

Prof. Susumu Noda received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electronics from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1982, 1984, and 1991, respectively. From 1984 to 1988, he was with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and was engaged in research on optoelectronic devices such as multiple quantum well distributed feedback lasers.

In 1988, he joined Kyoto University, and is currently a professor of Department of Electronic Science and Engineering. Since 2000, he has also served as Research Director of CREST, Japan Science and Technology Corporation. His research interest covers quantum optoelectronics including photonic crystals and quantum nano-structures. He has an author of more than 150 scientific journals including Nature and Science on these research subjects.

Prof. Noda is a member of IEEE, IEICE, and JAPS. He received Ando Incentive Prize, Marubun Incentive Prize, and IBM Science Award, in 1991, 1999, and 2000, respectively.

Prof D. N. Payne

Prof D. N. Payne is an internationally distinguished research leader in photonics and one of the leading Professors in the University, having been a member for 40 years.

A frequent Plenary and Invited speaker at major international conferences, he has published over 600 Conference and Journal papers. He is one of the most highly honoured members of the photonics community and has been awarded the top American, European and Japanese prizes in photonics, a rare achievement. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) awarded David the prestigious 2007 Photonics Award, his is the first award outside the USA. As well as the UK Rank Prize for Optics and the prestigious US Tyndall Award, he is a Franklin Laureate (USA) and, most recently, an Eduard Rhein Laureate (Europe). He is an original member of the Highly Cited Researchers (USA) where he is honoured as one of the most referenced, influential researchers in the field.

Prof Payne is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He has entries in Who’s Who, in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering and in Baron’s – The Europe 500 Leaders for the New Century. Most recently, He was awarded the Mountbatten Medal of the IEE (2001) and the Kelvin Medal of the eight major engineering institutions for distinction in the application of science to engineering (2004). In 2006 he was honoured by election to the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of only 240 foreign members. He also delivered the opening Plenary address at the top world conference CLEO (USA), one of the most sought after presentations in photonics.

In addition to his academic achievements, David is a leading University entrepreneur. He has been a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards and his activities have led to a photonics cluster of 9 companies surrounding the ORC, creating jobs and wealth in the local community. As a result, the University has benefited from 3 companies situated in the Chilworth Science Park, namely Sensa, Fibercore and Southampton Photonics Inc (SPI).

Under Prof Payne’s Chairmanship, SPI was a finalist for the 2005 MacRobert Award for Engineering Excellence, the top UK award in Engineering. In the same year, SPI (now SPI Lasers) undertook a successful IPO on the AIM and is now valued at around £50M.

As Director of the ORC, one of the strongest University brand names, David is responsible for 160 staff and PhD students. The 70+ PhD student cohort is one of the largest and most active in the university and has twice been voted best student Chapter worldwide by the Optical Society of America.

Under David’s stewardship the ORC is a new School within the University structure. In the international community it is regarded as being in the top few Institutes worldwide, having an alumni of 600 members in key positions in many international companies.

In recent years David has increasingly developed an external role on behalf of the university and photonics in the UK. He was a member of the ministerial Foresight Advisory Committee, attended the Pioneers of Britain reception at Buckingham Palace and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2004.

Over several decades, David has sustained an internationally leading research career spanning many diverse areas of photonics, from telecommunications and optical sensors to nanophotonics and optical materials. His current main research interest is high-power fibre lasers. With US funding, he led the team that broke the kilowatt barrier to international acclaim and that now holds many other fibre laser performance records. The project was funded by DARPA and was ranked in the top ten of several thousand projects at DARPA Tech 2004.

Dr. Ryne P. Raffaelle, National Center for Photovoltaics, National Renewable Energy Lab, Colorado USA

Photovoltaics Technology: Opportunities and Challenges

Dr. Ryne P. Raffaelle is director of the National Center for Photovoltaics at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).Raffaelle most recently has been academic director for the Golisano Institute for Sustainability and Director of the NanoPower Research Laboratory at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York.

Raffaelle has more than 20 years experience leading laboratory research teams.While directing the two institutions at RIT, he also served as a professor of physics, microsystems engineering and sustainability and was responsible for more than $20 million in research grants in photovoltaics, thin-film processing, and nanomaterials research. He co-founded two photovoltaic and power system start-up companies: Wakonda Technologies, Inc. in 2008 and Alpha V, Inc. in 2002.

His career included working as a visiting scientist at the NASA-Glenn Research Center; the NASA Lewis Research Center; and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He was an associate professor of physics and space sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology from 1992-1999.

Raffaelle has authored or co-authored over 100 refereed publications and books.He is co-editor of Progress in Photovoltaics and has served on the organizing committee for the past four IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conferences and the last World Conference.He has a Ph.D. in physics from University of Missouri-Rolla, and bachelor of science and a master of science degrees in physics from Southern Illinois University.

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