On September 27, the OPTICA Student Chapter held their 1st Annual Symposium

This event featured presentations from six talented graduate students—three from Physics, two from Chemistry, and one from Engineering. With over 30 attendees, the event was a great opportunity for networking and learning.

The presenters shared their work on:

1. High-order Harmonic Generation in Solids - Hwihyeon Kang
2. Spectral and Temporal Characterization of UV Resonant Dispersive Waves - Chelsea Kincaid
3. Exploring the Influence of Interfacial Solvation of Electromechanical CO2 Reduction Using Plasmon-Enhanced Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy - Jaclyn Rebstock
4. Transient Absorption Spectroscopy: A Tool for Probing the Mechanism of Dirhodium (II,II) Photocatalysts for H2 Evolution - Piyush Gupta
5. Relativistic Effects and Spin-Orbit Delays in Methyl Iodide - Brock Grafstrom
6. Anisotropic Temperature and Polarization Dependence of Third Harmonic Generation in Van der Waals Layered Material AgScP2S6 - Mohamed Yaseen Noor

The presentations highlighted interesting research and current trends in the field. Judges TJ Ronningen, Abraham Camacho, and William Carpenter provided valuable feedback to the students. 

The winners consisted of: 

• 1st place: Jaclyn Rebstock
• 2nd place: Brock Grafstrom
• 3rd place: Chelsea Kincaid

This symposium was a great success, thanks to the ongoing support of the Institute for Optical Science, which continuously sponsors the OPTICA Student Chapter’s activities to promote optics and photonics through professional development and community outreach.