Karen Matthews

I am honored and delighted to write a 2nd column as the Associate Editor (AE) of the United States and South America. IEEE is interested in expanding the coverage of activities in lasers and electro-optics (technical, academic, industrial, government, membership, and so on) in the US and South America. This quarter, I’ll provide some interesting information about the membership in the US and South America and benefits from being a LEOS member. With so much information to distribute on these 2 topics, I will cover “how to start a local chapter” next quarter.

64 Chapters

LEOS is the 13th largest Society (of 39 total societies). There are 64 LEOS chapters throughout the 100 country member area, with a membership totaling 7, 512.12
Members in 100 countries
• 52% in U.S.
• 3% in Canada
• 22% in Europe, Middle East, Africa
• 1% in Mexico, Central and South Americas
• 21% in Asia, Pacific

Benefits of LEOS Membership 3
I. Providing opportunities for information exchange, continuing education, and professional growth.

1. Free on-line access to the LEOS Membership Directory (Over 8500 members)
2. Access to on-line products and services through the LEOS Portal including: LEOS University, LEOS Tech Briefs, Job Postings, and other career-related website links.
3. The opportunity to participate in local LEOS-related activities that are sponsored and managed by over 60 LEOS Chapters throughout the world.
4. Latest information on IEEE and LEOS career opportunities including the LEOS Portal Job Postings and the IEEE Employment Services.
5. Additional IEEE Benefits which include: free subscription to (IEEE Spectrum Magazine, The IEEE Institute), and a free IEEE e-mail alias.

II. Publishing journals, sponsoring conferences, and supporting local chapter and student activities.

1. Free on-line access to the LEOS Digital Library through IEEE Xplore™”, containing all LEOS publications including the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics In Quantum Electronics, the IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, and the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology. This includes over 27,000 papers plus the proceedings from 79 selected conferences.
2. Low member rates on journals, conference registrations, books, videos, conference proceedings, standards, the annual LEOS Publications CD-ROM, the new DVD- ROM (December Newsletter, p. 28), etc.
3. Free on-line access to the LEOS Digital Archives. Similar to the Digital Library, the Digital Archives currently contain every paper from the three LEOS journals and the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology, with 2002 to be added shortly. The Archives offer members a powerful browsing and research capability with IEEE-formatted citations using the same interface as the CD-ROM. Access to the full PDF files is currently unavailable while we are working out the details of a new “single sign-on” feature which will allow members full access to all IEEE member services. When single sign-on is activated, members can retrieve these files as well as perform full-text searches across all four journals from 1965 to date.
4. Special Student benefits

a. Reduced prices for membership, journal subscriptions and conference fees.
b. Reduced Dues Plan for recent graduates - If you are an active IEEE Student Member when you receive your first professional degree, you will qualify for our discounted dues program. First-year recent graduates will be automatically invoiced at the discounted rate of 50% of full member dues.
c. LEOS Graduate Student Fellowship Program - This program provides Graduate Fellowships to outstanding LEOS Student Members pursuing graduate education within the LEOS field of interest (electro-optics, lasers, photonics, optics, or closely related fields). Up to 12 Fellowships of $5,000 each are awarded each year.
d. LEOS Student Travel Grants - LEOS has established a Travel Grants program to encourage student participation in LEOS-sponsored conferences and other activities. The program provides 16 grants annually of up to $2,500 each to enable students who present papers to travel to the LEOS Annual Meeting, OFC (Optical Fiber Communication Conference), CLEO (Conference on Lasers and Electro- Optics), CLEO/ Pacific Rim, CLEO/Europe, OECC (Optoelectronics and Communications Conference) and ECOC (European Conference on Optical Communication).

5. LEOS Student Project Program - LEOS has established a program to encourage and support students’ active participation in a team effort to conceptualize, plan, and implement a photonics systems project. The program provides three annual awards of $1,500 each to support the development and demonstration of the project.

LEOS Membership: 7,512

III. Formally recognizing the professional contributions of members.

1. The new IEEE Photonics Field Award is presented to an individual (or group of individuals) for outstanding achievements in photonics.
2. The IEEE/LEOS Quantum Electronics Award is given to honor an individual (or group of individuals) for outstanding technical contributions to quantum electronics, either in fundamentals or applications, or both. The award may be for a single contribution or for a distinguished series of contributions over a period of time.
3. The IEEE/LEOS Engineering Achievement Award is given to recognize an exceptional engineering contribution which has had a significant impact on the development of laser or electro-optic technology or the commercial application of technology within the past 10 years. It may be given to an individual or to a group for a single contribution of significant work in the field.
4. The IEEE/LEOS William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award is given to recognize an exceptional single scientific contribution which has had a significant impact in the field of lasers and electro-optics in the past 10 years.
5. The IEEE/LEOS Aron Kressel Award is given to recognize those individuals who have made important contributions to opto-electronic device technology. The device technology cited is to have had a significant impact on their applications in major practical systems. The intent is to recognize key contributors to the field for developments of critical components, which led to the development of systems enabling major new services or capabilities. These achievements should have been accomplished in a prior time frame sufficient to permit evaluation of their lasting impact.
6. The IEEE/LEOS Distinguished Lecturer Awards are presented to honor outstanding speakers who have made recent significant contributions to the field of lasers and electro-optics, and to enhance the programs of local LEOS Chapters. Currently, there are up to eight awards given each year.
7. The IEEE/LEOS Distinguished Service Award was established to recognize an exceptional individual contribution of service to LEOS which has had significant benefit to the membership of the Society as a whole.
8. The John Tyndall Award, endowed by Corning Inc., is presented annually to a single individual who has made outstanding contributions in any area of optical-fiber technology, including optical fibers themselves, the optical components used in fiber systems, as well as transmission systems and networks using fibers. The contributions which the award recognizes should have met the test of time and should have been of proven benefit to science, technology, or society. The contributions may be experimental or theoretical. This award is jointly sponsored by the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society and the Optical Society of America.

IV. Representing the laser, optoelectronics, and photonics community and serving as its advocate within the IEEE, the broader scientific and technical community, and society at large.

1. The current LEOS President serves on the Technical Activities Board of the IEEE.
2. LEOS members are encouraged to serve in IEEE Leadership positions and on IEEE Boards and Committees. Some of these Boards include: Educational Activities Board, IEEE-USA, Publication Services and Products Board, Regional Activities Board, and the Standards Association.
3. IEEE USA Technology Policy Council (Transportation & Aerospace Technology Policy, Communication & Information Policy, Energy Policy, R&D Policy)
4. Joint Council on Quantum Electronics
5. IEEE Nanotechnology Council
6. IEEE Sensors Council
7. Optics & Electro-Optics Standards Council
8. IEEE TAB New Technology Directions Committee
9. US Advisory Committee for the International Commission on Optics

I hope this information has peaked your interest so that you will continue reading both the magazine and future columns. I look forward to serving your membership and technical needs in future issues.

Thanks for the opportunity,
Karen

Dr. Karen Irene Matthews was born in Baltimore, Maryland. In July of 1984, Karen began her midshipman career at the United States Naval Academy, and in June of 1989, received her Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Morgan State University. It was the close knit community of, at that time, a small engineering department which fostered personal attention to every student and focused on learning the fundamental principles all engineers are required to understand in order to move forward with a successful engineering career. Upon completion of her undergraduate studies, Karen was sponsored for her graduate studies in Microwave Theory and Design by David Sarnoff Research Center via a GEM fellowship. After completing the Master’s of Engineering program at Cornell University, Karen began the MS/PhD program at Cornell University. This time, however, focusing her studies on Photonics and Opto-electronics, and minoring in Material Science and Applied and Engineering Physics. Karen successfully completed this program under the direction of Professors Joseph M. Ballantyne, Lester Eastman, William Mayer and Jack Blakely. Karen’s thesis is entitled Monolithic Etched-Facet Triangular Waveguide Diode Ring Laser Arrays for Hybrid Optical Packages Using Passive Alignment. Karen received several awards while in school, including the GTE Academic Fellowship, GEM Fellowship, National Consortium for Educational Access Fellowship, Cornell University Academic Fellowship, Cornell University Research Fellowship and Helen T. Carr Fellowship. Shortly after completion of this degree, Karen was married to Mr. David T. Matthews of Huntsville, Alabama. Both Karen and David currently work for Corning Incorporated. David, a mechanical engineering Tuskegee University graduate, serves as an Engineering Project Leader in Advanced Display Products. Karen serves as a Senior Research Packaging Scientist in the Integrated Equipment and Design Department within the Integration Products and Process Research Directorate. Dr. Matthews has authored several internal and external publications, patents, and pending patents within her 7+ years at Corning Incorporated, and is a member of several technical committees (including IEEE, NSBE, SWE, NAMEPA). She serves as the Technical Committee Chair and Program Subcommittee chair of the OPMR (Optoelectronic Packaging, Manufacturing and Reliability) committee for IEEE/LEOS, guest editor of the Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics (JSTQE) issue on Optoelectronic Packaging, and Associate Editor of US and South America for the IEEE-LEOS Newsletter.

References
[1] LEOS Board of Governors Meeting. OFC’04, Los Angeles, CA. 24 February 2004.
[2]. LEOS Board of Governors Meeting. Membership Committee Presentation by Alan Willner, Chair. LEOS’05, Sydney, Australia. 25 October 2005
[3] Benefits of LEOS Membership, President’s Comments. H. Scott Hinton.

For the scientist/engineer/technologist in all of us, here’s a spreadsheet outlining the privileges of LEOS Membership