The disciplines of Electrical Engineering and Physics came together in the invention of the laser. The joint contributions of there two fields of knowledge was recognized in the 1960s with the creation of a new field of study called Quantum Electronics and embodied in the devices and applications of the laser. The participants in Electrical Engineering and in Physics were represented by the professional societies American Physical Society, The Optical Society of America and the IEEE. Within the IEEE the early technical meetings were organized by the Electron Devices Society. In 1977 the Quantum Electronics and Applications Society was established to recognize that optoelectronics was rapidly growing and extending beyond the boundaries of the Electron Devices.
My early career followed the merging interests from physics to electrical engineering and applied physics. At the University of California, Berkeley, I studied physics and was allowed to participate in research projects as an undergraduate student in the atomic spectroscopy laboratories of Professor Sumner P. Davis. My early interests in amateur astronomy gave me an edge in laboratory skills that were in demand in optical spectroscopy studies. Later, upon graduation in 1964, it was Professor Davis who recommended that I interview at a small start-up company in Mountain View, CA called Spectra Physics. I followed his advice and visited the small company on the day that Earl Bell and Arnold Bloom operated the first ion laser, the mercury ion laser. It was an exciting time and I was hooked on lasers and began my lifelong career by working one year at Spectra Physics on the development of commercial products; helium neon lasers and argon and krypton ion lasers. Spectra Physics spawned many other small laser companies and laid the foundation for commercial products in this emerging field.
I learned about a Wednesday noon informal discussion led by Professor A. E. Siegman in the Microwave Laboratory on Stanford campus. The president of Spectra Physics, Herbert Dwight, agreed that I could ride my bicycle to campus and attend the discussions if I made up the time later in the day. The seminar and discussions included new work on nonlinear optics with graduate students Jack Marburger and John Bjorkholm. It was not long before I realized that there was a whole new world of optics of which I new very little. I applied for and was accepted into the Applied Physics Department at Stanford and was assigned to work with a very young assistant professor Stephen E. Harris. The research focused in laser modulation, FM frequency modulators, and nonlinear frequency conversion. It was an exciting time as each new issue of Applied Physics Letters and Quantum Electronics would announce new lasers, new laser transitions and the rapid progress in understanding coherent light and applications.
Members of the Optical Society of America and the IEEE recognized the value of collaboration in this new field of Quantum Electronics, and arranged for joint meetings and even a very special joint issue the IEEE Proceedings and Applied Optics in October 1966. Out of the collaboration came the Conference on Lasers and Electro-optics, CLEO.
The early days of CLEO saw scientific advances but a slow growth in the market place for lasers. The laser was a “solution looking for a problem”. In 1977 the IEEE established the QEAS (Quantum Electronics and Applications Society). This society became the focus of early meetings on Quantum Electronics and the sponsor of the highest impact journal in the field the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics. In 1984 I became President of QEAS and learned about the issues facing professional societies. One issue was the descriptive but awkward name of the Society: QEAS. We undertook to rename the society by seeking recommendations of a subcommittee of the Board and then putting three names to the membership for a vote. Lasers and Electro Optics Society was name selected by the membership.
The field has grown and matured and is now providing solutions to many areas critical to a modern society from communications, to manufacturing, medicine, sensing, and entertainment. With the widespread application of coherent light and the evolution of lasers from the laboratory curiosities to precision photonic devices came the realization that the field now has achieved a new status. It is appropriate that after a half century we recognize the widespread impact of the merger of two disciplines in creating a new discipline called photonics. It is also fitting that the name of the society again be changed to recognize the discipline of Photonics.

Biography: Robert L. Byer
Professor Robert L. Byer is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University. He has conducted research and taught classes in lasers and nonlinear optics at Stanford University since 1969. He has made numerous contributions to laser science and technology including the demonstration of the first tunable visible parametric oscillator, the development of the Q-switched unstable resonator Nd:YAG laser, remote sensing using tunable infrared sources and precision spectroscopy using Coherent Anti Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS). Current research includes the development of nonlinear optical materials and laser diode pumped solid state laser sources for applications to gravitational wave detection and to laser particle acceleration.
He served as Chair of the Applied Physics Department from 1980 to 1983; 1999–2002 Associate Dean of Humanities and Sciences from 1984 to 1986 and served as Vice Provost and Dean of Research at Stanford University from 1987 through 1992. He is currently the Director of Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory after serving as Director of Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory from 1997 through 2006.
Professor Byer is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the ­Laser Institute of America. In 1985 Professor Byer served as president of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-optics Society. He was elected President of the Optical Society of America and served in 1994. He is a founding member of the California Council on Science and Technology and served as chair from 1995–1999. He was a member of the Air Force Science Advisory Board from 2002–2006 and has been a member of the National Ignition Facility Advisory Committee since 2000.
In 1996 Professor Byer received the Quantum Electronics Award from the Lasers and Electro-optics Society of the IEEE. In 1998 he received the R. W. Wood prize of the Optical Society of America and the A. L. Schawlow Award from the Laser Institute of America. In 2000 he was the recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. In 2009 he received the IEEE Photonics Award and the OSA Ives Medal.
Professor Byer has published more than 500 scientific papers and holds 50 patents in the fields of lasers and nonlinear optics. Professor Byer was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1987 and to the National Academy of Science in 2000.