Companies & Photonics

If I ask you to write down how many companies you know working in the optic area, how many would it be? I think everyone knows Thorlabs and Newport, where most of us buy our optical components. And then... some other general well-known companies, some special companies working on your research topic, and then... i guess you know that there are much more companies.

There are several benefits for your research why to search once for other companies as to stay always at the same one:

• finding same product but cheaper (e.g. crystals, mechanical components, daily used things)
• better quality or performance (measurement devices)
• better support/ shorter delivering time (that is an important aspect)
• new products/ ideas for your research
  

But how to find them? A simple search with google or another search engine will often lead you to a useable result. Asking your working colleagues is good invested time too. Advertisement of new released products you can find in the different optic magazines (like Photonics Spectra and many others) or in the newsletters of the companies (wanted or unwanted you receive them ;) ). But in this post i want to draw your attention to something what many people know but also many doesnt. There are guides of companies where you can browse by subject to find different companies concerning your search. I want to introduce the one of Photonics Spectra:

Photonics Buyer´s Guide

You can browse by product/ service/ company name and region. The guide contains profiles and contact information for more than 4000 manufacturers and suppliers of photonics products and services worldwide. The page is clearly laid out and information are updated. Try it!

One more motivation why to know such a guide... if you are searching a job in the optics industry, you can find with the guide easily all the companies in your country ;).

Summer School!

In my opinion, every graduate student should at least have visited one summer school during his graduate studies. Why... because you benefit a lot from a summer school!

A summer school handles of a main topic and tries to bring together graduate students and young Post-docs from diverse range of fields relevant to the main topic. Lectures are normally given by leading researchers in the field. As a graduate student you will not only learn new things but you also have the chance to talk with the lectures in a relaxed atmosphere. In the postersession you can present your own work. A summer school goes between 1 and 2 weeks.
What I liked very much was to learn other graduate students from different places, working on the same/ similar project. Very nice for everyone are the social events during the school. Mostly you are going for sightseeing a day. And, in the evenings you are free to do what you want.
Normally, there is a small summer school fee but often you can apply for a scholarship which overtakes most of the fee. Summer school anouncements you can find everywhere... in journals (Photonics Spectra), on the blackboard of your department, but best thing is to ask simply your professor/ supervisor.

As an example for a summer school:

66th Scottish Universities Summer School in Physics
International Summer School in Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics 2010

Take the chance to visit a summer school!