Event Library

A century ago one could become trained in a field and pursue one's thesis area for the length of the career. That world is long gone, and the lifetime of a cutting-edge engineering education may be just a few years. Characteristically, the new solutions increasingly need to be based on a broader range of knowledges.

Light is an essential source of information on the world around us, not only at the microscopic scale of atoms and molecules, but also at the very large scale of the universe. It appears now that light is also a powerful tool for acting on atoms, for manipulating them, for controlling their various degrees of freedom.

In many cases, the chain of discoveries that lead us to a deeper understanding of the natural world is not always anticipated. Even technologies developed to investigate the mysteries of nature don't always have an immediate application.