1. CONFERENCES: Conferences attended by some of our student members this past year, consist of four international and four local conferences.

South African Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Summer School:

Four chapter members (Steven Nkosi, Lerato Shiwambana, Malcolm Govender and Kaminee Maduray) attended the South African Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Summer School, held in Pretoria, South Africa.

Summer School in Quantum Optics:

Chapter members, Nicolene Botha, Ludwig de Clercq and Alpha Hamadou Ibrahim, attended a summer school in quantum optics held in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Lasers in Chemistry Workshop:

Chapter member, Malcolm Govender, attended and presented at the Lasers in Chemistry Workshop held in Pretoria, South Africa.

ICOAM:

Yaseera Ismail and Angela Dudley presented their work at the International Conference on Optical Angular Momentum in York, UK.

OTN4MLS and Villa 2010:

Chapter member, Malcolm Govender, attended and presented his work at two international conferences: the ‘Optical Techniques and Nano-Tools for Material and Life Sciences’ conference in Minsk, Belarus and Villa 2010 (Interaction among Nanostructures) in Greece.

SAIP:

All chapter members presented their researcher at the South Africa Institute of Physics conference held in Pretoria during the last week of September. Chapter members, Darryl Naidoo, Yaseera Ismail and Angela Dudley all won awards for their presentations.

SPIE Optics and Photonics: Chapter members Cosmas Mafusire and Mapule De Gama both made use of SPIE travel grants to attend the Optics and Photonics conference held in San Diego, where they both presented their work.

OSA Frontiers in Optics:

Angela Dudley attended the OSA Frontiers in Optics conference in Rochester, USA where she presented some of her research.

2. OUTREACH:

Chapter member, Darryl Naidoo, at

the 7th Annual Leadership Conference In Durban, South Africa, promoting careers in science to high

school students.

Brenda Pelle explaining the physics of lasers to high school students at the ‘ScienceFest’

expo in Limpopo, South Africa.

Science undergraduate students from the University of Pretoria touring the labs at

our institute.

Homecoming Revolution, London, UK’. Chapter member, Angela Dudley, promoting the need for

skilled expat South Africans to invest in the South African photonics

industry.

Chapter members, Steven Nkosi and Roelf Botha, explaining the properties of lasers to high school students at Orange Farm, South Africa.

3. SPIE SCHOLARSHIP: Angela Dudley received a SPIE scholarship which allowed her to visit the University of Glasgow (in Scotland) to work alongside their Quantum Optics group for 2 and a half weeks in September this year.

The clock-tower on the Glasgow campus.

4. OSA VISITING LECTURER: Dr Carlos López-Mariscal Dr Carlos López-Mariscal visited the CSIR Student Chapter from 30 May till 13 June 2010. During his stay he gave a series of lectures to both the students and researchers of the CSIR’s NLC (National Laser Centre). He also spent a lot of time assisting two student chapter members, Yaseera Ismail and Attie Hendriks, with their research investigations. It was an uncanny coincidence that his visit overlapped with the start of the 2010 World Cup and we were able to watch the South Africa versus Mexico game together.

1. Lecture Series: • Tutorial: “Spatial light modulators and programming phase masks”

Since the Mathematical Optics group spends a large portion of their research in the area of ‘laser beam shaping’, we found Dr López-Mariscal’s tutorial on programming spatial light modulators very informative and essential for our work.

Researchers of the Mathematical Optics group with Dr López-Mariscal.

Standing, left-right: Dr Stef Roux, Dr Igor Litvin, Darryl Naidoo, Prof Andrew Forbes, Dr López-Mariscal, Yaseera Ismail, Attie Hendriks and Sandile Ngcobo. Kneeling, left-right: Alpha Hamadou Ibrahim, Angela Dudley, Ronald Rop(visiting student from Kenya) and Cosmas Mafusire.

Date: Friday 4 June 2010 Venue: NLC-Kgotla Duration: 2 hours 30 mins Attendance: 12 (3 permanent researchers + 9 students)

• Colloquium: “Single molecule containers using microfluidics” Dr López-Mariscal gave a lecture on generating water-droplets, through the use of a microfluidic technique, which are used to house single molecules. This lecture was not only advertised to researchers at the NLC, but other researchers at the CSIR campus (such as those based at MSM (Material Science and Manufacturing) and Biosciences).

A series of photos of audience members and Dr López-Mariscal giving his lecture.

Date: Wednesday 9 June 2010 Venue: NLC-Boardroom Duration: 1 hour Attendance: 43 (A mixture of students and permanent researchers from NLC, MSN

and Biosciences)

• Colloquium: “The physics of laser beam shaping with a phase-only spatial light modulator” Dr López-Mariscal gave a lecture on how one can use a phase-only spatial light modulator to perform both phase and amplitude modulation.

Date: Friday 11 June 2010 Venue: NLC-Boardroom Duration: 1 hour Attendance: 28 (A mixture of students and permanent researchers from NLC)

2. Research Assistance: Not only did we benefit from Dr López-Mariscal’s informative lectures, but we were also able to gain some of his valuable experimental expertises. Many late evenings was he found in the lab helping students to improve their optical setups.

Some of the experimental Mathematical Optics students with Dr López-Mariscal.

Left-right: Ronald Rop (visiting student from Kenya), Dr López-Mariscal, Dr Igor Litvin, Angela Dudley, Yaseera Ismail and Attie Hendriks.

Dr López-Mariscal and Yaseera Ismail ‘fine-tuning’ the NLC’s ‘home-built’

optical tweezer.

Dr López-Mariscal and Attie Hendriks investigating the effects of amplitude control with

a phase-only spatial light modulator.

3. Farewell Dr López-Mariscal, but Welcome World Cup! On Dr López-Mariscal’s last day we celebrated the opening of the 2010 World Cup with lots of ‘vuvuzela blowing’, a traditional South African braai and of course supporting our home-team, Bafana Bafana, play Dr López-Mariscal’s home-team, Mexico.

A series of photos taken during our braai and the

game between South Africa and Mexico.

Date: Friday 11 June 2010 Venue: CSIR braai and entertainment facilities. Duration: 5 hours Attendance: 30 (A mixture of students and permanent researchers from

the NLC)

4. Expenses and Funding:

Sponsors: OSA: Dr López-Mariscal’s Travel (airtickets) CSIR’s NLC: Dr López-Mariscal’s accommodation and car hire during his stay.

As well as R1500 sponsorship for the NLC 2010 World Cup braai.

Expenses incurred by our student chapter: Opening OSA student chapter balance: R3775.00 Gift for Dr López-Mariscal and sponsorship of snacks at the braai:

R991.30

Ending balance (which will go towards events our chapter will be hosting at this years SAIP conference):

R 2783.70

5. SAIP CONFERENCE:

At the end of September, all of our student chapter members attended as well as presented their work at the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP) conference. The conference ran from Tuesday 28 September to Friday 1 October 2010. This year the annual conference was held at the CSIR Convention Centre in Pretoria, South Africa. At the conference our students hosted the following events and activities in order to promote the field of optics and photonics as well as the 50th anniversary of the laser.

1. Public Lecture/ Demonstration: A summer school was held on the first day of the conference. The theme of the summer school was optics and lasers. It was open to any interested physics undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate student or lecturer. Our student chapter, together with the Stellenbosch student chapter, hosted a public lecture and demonstration on light and lasers. The title of our show was: “Laser ‘Point’ers: enlightening points on light and lasers”.

To prepare for the public lecture, chapter president Angela Dudley, visited the Stellenbosch student chapter where ideas for the collaborative lecture were brainstormed. This took place on Monday 23 August 2010.

Once we had a structure for our public lecture both Angela Dudley and Nic Erasmus (the Stellenbosch student chapter president) visited Derek Fish for advice as to how we could make our demonstration more interactive and entertaining. Derek Fish runs a Science Centre in Richard’s Bay, South Africa and has performed many funny and entertaining science shows. This took place on Friday 27 August 2010.

We plan performing our new optics and laser show at other outreach events in the future.

Photos of chapter members setting up for the show; during the show with demonstrations and students enjoying a joke.

Date: Tuesday 28 September 2010 Venue: CSIR Convention Centre Duration: 1 hour 30 mins Attendance: ± 80

2. Booth: At the conference our chapter hosted an exhibition booth to showcase to students from all over South Africa, the benefits of forming their own student chapter. We achieved this by running a presentation which illustrated the benefits of forming student chapters as well as how our chapter has benefited personally by being affiliated with OSA and SPIE. The hiring of a booth at SAIP was R10 000 (~ $1428), but our chapter was very fortunate in that PISA (Photonics Initiative of South Africa) offered for us to share a booth with them for no charge.

Chapter members encouraging a student SAIP delegate to form his own student chapter at his university. Chapter members

‘manning’ the booth.

Date: Tuesday 28 September – Friday 1 October 2010

Venue: CSIR Convention Centre Attendance: ± 350 (All SAIP attendees)

3. Braai: During the conference our chapter, together with the Stellenbosch student chapter, hosted a braai one evening after the poster session. All members of the Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy Group where invited to the event. This gave students the opportunity to socialise with lecturers as well as the invited speakers of the conference.

Optics, Lasers and Spectroscopy group members enjoying the braai hosted by the CSIR and Stellenbosch student chapters.

Date: Wednesday 29 September 2010 Venue: Tarentaal Lapa, CSIR Campus Duration: 2.5 hours Attendance: ± 60

Expenses and Funding:

Additional funding from other sponsors: Sponsors: Nature of Expense: Amount: (Rands)

CSIR NLC Flight and car hire for A. Dudley to visit the Stellenbosch student chapter. (23 August)

2528

CSIR NLC Flights, accommodation and car hire for A. Dudley and N. Erasmus to visit Derek Fish in Richard’s Bay. (27 August)

3347

PISA Hiring of booth at SAIP. (Shared with PISA) 5000 (10 000/2) CSIR NLC Drinks and salads for the braai. (29 September) 2227.33 LRI Meat for the braai (29 September) 934.81

14037.14

Student Chapter Account: Opening student chapter balance: 2679.77 OSA Collaborative Grant: 1812.50 SPIE Activity Grant: 6830.55 SAIP Expenses: 2001.49 Printing of Chapter Poster: (24 July) 530.5 Airport Parking: (23 August) 130 Balloons for demos: (31 August) 42.99 Green 100mW laser pointer for demos (8 September) 256.77 Chips for Braai and prizes for public lecture: (27 September) 621.18 Hiring of the Lapa for the Braai: (27 September) 400 Ice for the braai: (28 September 2010) 20 Ending balance (which will go towards outreach events for next year): 9321.33

6. MEMBERS: The CSIR student chapter has been running for three years and currently has 18 student members.

Dr López-Mariscal surrounded by some of our student chapter members.

Chapter Officers for 2010: President: Angela Dudley Vice President: Saturnin Ombinda-Lemboumba Treasurer: Cobus Jacobs Members: Gerda Botha Roelo Botha Oliver Collett Ludwig de Clercq Malcolm Govender Alpha Hamadoli Ibrahim Adriaan Hendriks Yaseera Ismail Wayne Koen Kaminee Maduray Cosmas Mafusire Palesa Molukanele Darryl Naidoo Steven Nkosi Lerato Shikwambana