Abstract
The United Nations has declared 2015 as the International Year of Light in order to recognize the importance of raising global awareness about how light-based technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health.
Light plays a vital role in our daily lives and is an imperative cross-cutting discipline of science in the 21st century. It has revolutionized medicine, opened up international communication via the Internet, and continues to be central to linking cultural, economic and political aspects of the global society.
UC Santa Barbara's record of excellence makes us a key leader in the world of lighting and light-based technologies. Three UCSB faculty members have earned Nobel Prizes for their light-based research and UCSB's Institute for Energy Efficiency has recently been named as the West Coast Headquarters of a multimillion-dollar photonics manufacturing institute, AIM Photonics.
We invite you to join us in celebrating this groundbreaking research by exploring recent developments with a prestigious panel of experts in the field, as well as a poster session filled with on-going research and industry activities, and four lectures by Nobel Laureates, including a key note lecture by Nobel Laureate and former Secretary of Energy, Steve Chu.