 | | Table of Contents
- From the President
- April Meeting
- OSSC Election Coming Soon
- Upcoming Mount Wilson Viewing Party
- FindLight Founders Visit UCI
- Advanced Photonics Congress Coming to Long Beach
- James Webb Field Service Engineers Needed
- Outreach Activities
- Optics Education
- Attention Students
- OSSC Website Sponsors
- OSSC Corporate Members
- Welcome New OSSC Members
|  | Newsletter Volume 30, Number 8
April 2026 | | |
From The President
Donn Silberman
| | Hello OSSC Members and Friends,
Welcome to my OSSC April Letter. I hope you can attend our April meeting at the Samueli Academy in Santa Ana to enjoy the friendship of your fellow OSSC members and other guests. While we have had events here several times over the past few years, this event will be headlined by my friend Dr. Charles Norton, Deputy Chief Technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Norton will review JPL’s success with designing, building, launching and deploying many small satellites over several years with many outstanding partners. Read More >
| | | OSSC Election Coming Soon | | OSSC will hold its next election for officers soon. You must be a member to vote, so it's a great time to renew your membership. Final votes will be counted and the results announced at our June meeting.
We would love for you to join the OSSC Leadership Team either by running for elected office by serving as a volunteer!
The Leadership Team guides our Society through all of our activities including regular monthly meetings, special events, and education & outreach activities. The team also manages the Society's membership and finances and communicates with our members through our website, newsletter, emails, and via social media.
If you are interested in running for office or volunteering in any capacity, please contact OSSC President Donn Silberman at President@ossc.org. | OSSC Finalizes Plans For Mount Wilson Viewing Party |  | | The OSSC is finalizing the details of our next viewing party at the Mount Wilson Observatory where we will spend half the night viewing astronomical object using the famed Hooker 100-inch telescope. The event will take place on August 8 and will include an engineering tour, pot-luck dinner, and the chance to spend the night at the Monastery Dormitory where Albert Einstein and Edwin Hubble slept. Details coming soon.
The Mount Wilson Observatory has an interesting article by Mike Simons about the construction of the 100-inch telescope including the five years of grinding and polishing of the primary mirror. Here >
Nine miles long and 12 feet wide - the historic road to the Mount Wilson Observatory played a critical role in the development of Science. The American Institute of Physics (AIP) recently spotlighted an article by astrophysicist and historian Eun-Joo Ahn published in in Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (HSNS) about the construction of this important road. You can read the Article spotlight by AIP Here >
| FindLight Founders Share Wisdom at UCI | The founders of OSSC Corporate Member FindLight, both PhD alumni of the University of California, Irvine, recently returned to their alma mater to present an engaging talk titled “Life After PhD: From Research to a Global Photonics Marketplace”, bringing together members of the Optical Society of Southern California (OSSC) alongside UCI graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and university staff. Read more Here >
| | | Advanced Photonics Congress Coming to Long Beach in July | | This summer, the Optical Society of Southern California is excited to encourage our community to explore the Optica Advanced Photonics Congress, taking place July 26–30, 2026, in Long Beach, California. In the spirit of OSSC’s mission to share knowledge and bring together people across the optics community, this meeting offers a wonderful opportunity to learn about new advances in integrated photonics, AI for photonics, optical communications, nonlinear photonics, biophotonics, novel optical materials, and more. Whether you are a student, researcher, or industry professional, this congress is a great place to connect, exchange ideas, and be inspired.
| | | NASA Seeks Field Service Engineers for James Webb Space Telescope | |
April 1, 2026
NASA announced opportunities for experienced field service engineers to conduct periodic maintenance of the the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb launched on Dec. 25th 2021, arrived in orbit on Jan, 24, 2022, and requires routine cleaning, maintenance, and optical alignment. Webb does not orbit around the Earth like the Hubble Space Telescope, it orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2. Job requirements include: US citizenship, two PhDs (including one in a STEM field), five years of relevant experiences, and a willingness to travel. The position includes competitive compensation, unlimited travel snacks, and an official NASA cribbage board for use during the 1440 hour round-trip travel time.
| Outreach Opportunities
The OSSC seeks volunteers for upcoming events being organized by our friends at Vital Link and The Girl Scouts of Orange County and many more. If you are interested please contact us at Outreach@ossc.org.
| | | Final Notes
We love publishing news from our members including profiles, activities, white papers, and new products from our OSSC Corporate Members. Send your input to Newsletter@ossc.org. Please include the word "newsletter" in the subject line of your email. | Learn more about professional education opportunities on the OSSC website. | Students Members receive a meal discount at our regular meetings. If you qualify as a Student Member but do not see the discount, your membership probably needs to be updated. Please contact Memberships@ossc.org to have your membership changed to Student Member before registering for the next meeting.
Student Members are Individual Members who are currently enrolled in school at least part-time and are not working full-time.
| | | | Ablimit Ablez
Joseph Aist
Shirley D Bamaca
Yu-Chien (Alice) Chien
Nicolas I Colon
Anthony B Davis
Kenneth Fisher
Taylor Ford
Jason Fucik
Roxanne D Guevara
George Ellery Hale
Wenqi He
Prateek Jain
Bahram Jalali
Ziqi Jin
Friedrich W Kunzler
| | Devin L Lightfoot
Yingshuo Lyu
Asad Mahmood
David E O'Ryan
Candido D Pinto
Jacob N Pushnof
Allisson Quintero
Scott Richman
Reed A Schmell
Vahan Senekerimyan
Roger Smith
Brandon Turk
Sean Vo
Fei Xia
Jin Yan
GUIRONG ZHOU | | | We value your membership and appreciate your support! | Optical Society of Southern California
www.ossc.org
Box 228, 2312 Park Avenue
Tustin, California 92782
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