Below are links to articles I’ve authored or coauthored in Optics & Photonics News (OPN) since 2014.
Feature Articles
Hydrogel Optical Fibers (November 2024)
Researchers are working to coax a class of superbly biocompatible polymer–water hybrids into light-guiding channels for sensing, optogenetics and more.
Photonics and AI: Industry Perspectives (September 2024; with Hannah Lanford and Rachel Sender)
OPN talked with six companies about some of the opportunities AI could open for the optics and photonics industry—in silicon photonics and beyond. [SW contribution: stories on Ayar Labs, Intel and GlobalFoundries]
Wanted: Optics and Photonics Technicians (February 2023)
The optics community continues to wrestle with a shortage of skilled technical workers for labs and shop floors—a decades-long problem that could hold back the industry’s growth.
Marvelous MIRI (April 2022)
The Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument—the coolest optical gadget in space—is getting ready for its close-up.
Optics in Africa, Part 2: Realizing the Promise (March 2022)
OPN talked with a number of African researchers about the prospects for advancing optical and photonic science on a diverse and changing continent.
The Search for a Better COVID Test (September 2021)
Researchers are drawing on optics and photonics to improve the current “gold-standard” approach to coronavirus diagnostics—and to develop promising alternatives.
Optics in Africa: Six Stories (May 2021)
A recently published JOSA A and B feature issue highlighted the wide-ranging optical and photonic research being pursued by scientists on the African continent. For this first installment of a two-part feature, OPN talked with several of the contributors.
In Search of Equity (September 2020)
The events of 2020 may offer a unique chance to advance the representation of African Americans in optics and photonics—if the community grasps the opportunity.
The Laser at 60 (May 2020)
Six decades after the first working laser was demonstrated, OPN offers a few samples of the incredibly rich field the device has created.
ELI: Open for Business (January 2020)
After a decade of design, construction and commissioning, the European sites housing some of the world’s most powerful ultrafast lasers are making the transition to user facilities driving new science.
Photonic Eyes on Earth (July/August 2019; with Yael Fitzpatrick)
From the depths of the core to the fringes of the atmosphere, photonic technologies are driving new insights on Earth history, natural disasters and climate change.
Quantum Effects in Biology (April 2019)
Photonic techniques are uncovering evidence that life’s evolutionary toolkit just might include quantum coherence, tunneling and entanglement.
EuroQuantum (September 2018)
The E.U. and its member states have embarked on a research journey with an ambitious goal: to make Europe a powerhouse on the emerging global landscape of quantum technology.
Gravitational Waves: The Road Ahead (May 2018)
LIGO and Virgo have opened up a new window into the local universe. But the global gravitational-wave community isn’t stopping there.
Freeform Optics: Notes from the Revolution (July/August 2017)
Driven by advances in theory, computational speed, and design and fabrication ingenuity, freeform surfaces continue to make inroads in a range of applications.
Uncertainty Principles: Photonics and Politics (February 2017)
The optics community responds to a changeable landscape in the U.S., the U.K., and beyond.
OSA Centennial Snapshots: OCT and the Flowering of Biophotonics (September 2016)
From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, government funding and interdisciplinary innovation combined to launch optical coherence tomography—a milestone in biomedical optics.
OSA Centennial Snapshots: Global Conflict, Thin Films, and Mary Banning (March 2016; with Sarah Michaud)
The brief career of a talented, hands-on optical physicist has much to say about the status of optics, and of women scientists, at midcentury.
How the Great War Changed the Optics Industry (January 2016)
The demands of World War I transformed the optical-glass industries of the Allied countries from small-scale, trial-and-error crafts to volume enterprises informed by science.
Departments/Columns
PROFILE: Inspiring a Better Future(April 2024)
Fabian Ruf, the 2023 recipient of the Optica Foundation’s Chang Pivoting Fellowship, is passionate about transforming the world through education.
INDUSTRY: Staffing the Quantum Revolution (March 2023)
How should the emerging quantum technology industry educate and train its future workforce?
PROFILE: The Art of Discovery (January 2023)
Imaging scientists at the US National Gallery of Art are building an optical toolkit for investigating masterpieces ancient and modern.
IDEAS: Creativity on Demand (December 2022)
The myths of the “creative genius” and the “Eureka moment” in science.
INDUSTRY: A Tale of Two Chips Acts (November 2022)
The year’s giant semiconductor legislative packages, viewed through a photonic lens.
SPECIAL REPORT: Ukraine: Kharkiv Stories (July/August 2022)
Scientists with ties to a vital Ukrainian scientific and industrial center talked with OPN about what the war has meant thus far—and what the future might hold.
IDEAS: Building a “Google Earth” for the Human Brain (June 2022)
A research team led by Optica Fellow Elizabeth Hillman hopes to create an imaging pipeline that can map every cell in the brain—at unprecedented speeds.
PROFILE: Infectious Diseases in the Crosshairs (January 2021)
A new translational-research center being built in Jena, Germany, aims to speed the path from lab to clinic for promising biophotonic technologies.
PROFILE: A Quarter-Century of Optical Network Research (December 2019)
A pioneering research group in optical communications celebrates its 25th anniversary—and looks at the road ahead.
BEYOND BORDERS: Building a Photonics Cluster—From Scratch (April 2018)
The ambitious Mexican Photonics Initiative finds a home for its proposed industry hub.
GLOBAL OPTICS: Finding a Voice for Photonics (September 2014)
International efforts to promote awareness—and funding—reflect different regional approaches and priorities.
Research and Industry News
From 2014 to 2024, I authored hundreds of breaking-news and news feature stories for OPN’s online site. For a look at some of those stories, go to https://www.optica-opn.org/home/search?search=Stewart%20Wills, click the “Research & Industry News” and “Newest First” radio buttons, and select “Exact phrase” under “Search mode.”
Science Podcast
In 2005, I advocated for, developed and launched the weekly podcast of the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to designing the show’s basic format, launching the product, setting up and posting podcast feeds, etc., for the first couple of years I organized the show’s content, conducted interviews, and hosted and edited the show. During that time, we were able to build an audience to the point where we could make the case for a new hire to take over the project in 2007.
Unfortunately, changes at the Science website have eliminated access to the early shows I produced. However, even after the show was taken over by new staff, I occasionally produced and hosted shows during staff absences. An example of one such show (from August 2010) is here.