Bio-Imaging For Lab And Industry Is Focus Of Winter College In Optics At ICTP

Topics cover biological applications, environmental research, materials characterization

The 2017 Winter College on Optics, on the theme of "Applied Optical Techniques for Bio-­imaging: Advanced Microscopy and Spectroscopy in Life and Environmental Sciences," was held at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, from 13 to 24 February. Co-sponsored by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, the International Commission for Optics (ICO), and several other organizations, the college summarized how light-based innovations can have positive outcomes for virtually every step in the production and consumption of our food.

Directors were Humberto Cabrera (Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research), Maria Luisa Calvo (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Alberto Diaspro (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia), Viktor Lysiuk (V. Lashkariov Institute of Semiconductor Physics), and Nicoletta Tosa (National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies). The local organizer was Joseph Niemela (ICTP).

Main topics covered by faculty included:

• Introduction to optical microscopy, confocal microscopy, phase contrast microscopy and super-resolution
• Bio-imaging processing and speckle interferometry bio-imaging
• Advanced fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence nanoscopy and label free approaches in microscopy
• Mobile-phone based fluorescent microscopy: sensing and diagnostics
• STED microscopy: the way to Nobel Prize
• Polarization microscopy: biomedical imaging and diagnostics
• Photothermal spectroscopy and microscopy: related techniques and applications
• Time-resolved and multispectral spectroscopy; biosensing by surface plasmon resonance
• Optical properties of thin films, optical lithography, applications of nanostructured porous materials for biomedicine
• Optical tweezers and applications.

The Winter College LAMP (Laser, Atomic and Molecular Physics) program provided an opportunity for students to present their work in poster form or as a short oral presentation, with awards and prizes sponsored by SPIE.

SPIE Past President Katarina Svanberg (Lund University Hospital and South China Normal University) presented the LAMP awards on behalf of SPIE to:

• Angel Sergio Cifuentes Castro, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico: first place
• Alexandra Falamas, National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, Romania: first place
• Swapnil Digambar Mahajan, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India: second place
• Modou Mbaye, Institute of Applied Nuclear Technique, Senegal: second place
• Pegah Asgari, University of Zanjan, Iran: third place
• Mayya Sundukova, European Molecular Biology Lab, Italy: third place.

The 2017 ICO/ICTP Gallieno Denardo Prize recognizing young researchers from developing countries who have made significant contributions to the field of optics or photonics was awarded to:

• SPIE Member Goutam Kumar Samanta of the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India, for his significant contributions to the field of nonlinear optics, lasers and quantum optics, as well as his efforts in popularizing science among school students in India.

In addition to supporting the Winter College on Optics with an annual $5,000 contribution, SPIE provides students with free digital library access and $30,000 annually to support an optics staff position in the SPIE-ICTP Anchor Research in Optics Program, situated on the ICTP campus. The program affords scientists access to equipment and other resources not available in their home regions.

Along with SPIE and ICO, the Winter College is sponsored by The Optical Society (OSA), the European Optical Society (EOS), Società Italiana di Ottica e Fotonica (SIOF), and the International Society on Optics Within Life Sciences (OWLS). SPIE is a Society member of the ICO.

In conjunction with ICTP, SPIE provides free SPIE Digital Library access in participating countries through the eJDS (eJournals Delivery Service) program. Articles from scientific literature, primarily in physics and mathematics, are provided to individual scientists.

About SPIE
SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, is an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering and technology. The Society serves nearly 264,000 constituents from approximately 166 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2016, SPIE provided $4M in support of education and outreach programs. For more information, visit www.spie.org.