The International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL 2015) is a global initiative that will highlight to the citizens of the world the importance of light and optical technologies in their lives, for their futures, and for the development of society. It is an unique opportunity to inspire, educate, and connect on a global scale.
International Year of Light website:
NISE Network activities and programs suggestions for the International Year of Light:
NanoDays short hands-on activities
- Exploring Materials - Liquid Crystals (NanoDays 08, 09, 10)
- Exploring Products - Liquid Crystal Displays (NanoDays 2013)
- Exploring Properties - Invisibility (NanoDays 13, 14)
- Exploring Products - Sunblock (NanoDays 2011 and 2012)
- Exploring Properties - UV Bracelets (NanoDays 2013)
- Exploring Materials - Thin Films (NanoDays 2011 and 2012)
- Exploring Structures - Butterfly (NanoDays 2012)
- Exploring Materials - Nano Gold (NanoDays 2012)
- Exploring Tools - 3D Imaging (NanoDays 2013)
- Exploring Properties - Capillary Action (NanoDays 2014)
Videos
- Butterfly Blues video
- Zoom into a Blue Morpho Butterfly video
- Nano and Me videos - Gold
- What’s Nano About Bubbles? video
- Invisibility Cloak video
- A Little Bit of Sunshine video
Programs
- Colors at the Nanoscale: Butterflies, Beetles and Opals classroom program
- Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs): Cart Version program
- Biomimicry: From Nature to Nanotech program
- Nanoparticle Stained Glass (cart demo) program
- Photolithography program
- Dye Sensitized (Raspberry Juice) Solar Cell
Online Brown-Bag workshop
- recorded online workshop March 2013 that included a discussion of light at the nanoscale
- Online Brown-Bag: The International Year of Light 2015 - What's Nano about Light? (Recording)
More light activities
- HowToSmile.org collection of light activities https://www.howtosmile.org/resource-search/light
Get Involved
- SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics
- Krisinda Plenkovich, Director, Education and Community Services SPIE
[email protected]
1-360-685-5518
- Krisinda Plenkovich, Director, Education and Community Services SPIE
- Additional Contacts are available here:
About IYL 2015
The International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL 2015) is a global initiative that will highlight to the citizens of the world the importance of light and optical technologies in their lives, for their futures, and for the development of society. A resolution declaring 2015 the International Year of Light was passed by the full United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 2013.
IYL 2015 is endorsed by a number of international scientific unions and the International Council of Science, and has more than 100 partners from more than 85 countries. Founding Scientific Sponsors of IYL 2015 are:
- the American Physical Society (APS)
- The American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- the European Physical Society (EPS)
- the IEEE Photonics Society (IPS)
- SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics
- the Lightsources.org International Network
- the Institute of Physics (IOP)
- The Optical Society (OSA)
Raising Global Awareness
In proclaiming an International Year focusing on the topic of light science and its applications, the United Nations has recognized the importance of raising global awareness of how light-based technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health.
Major scientific anniversaries to be celebrated during 2015 are:
2015 marks a number of significant scientific anniversaries, from the early works on optics by Islamic scholar Ibn Al-Haytham in 1015 to Kao’s achievements on the transmission of light in fibres for optical communications in 1965.
- Ibn Al-Haytham's works on optics (1015)
- notion of light as a wave (Fresnel, 1815)
- electromagnetic theory of light propagation (Maxwell, 1865)
- Einstein's theory of the photoelectric effect (1905) and of the embedding of light in cosmology through general relativity (1915)
- discovery of the cosmic microwave background by Penzias and Wilson (1965)
- Charles Kao's achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication (1965)
Light in our Daily Life
Light plays a vital role in our daily lives and is an imperative cross-cutting discipline of science in the 21st century. It has revolutionized medicine, opened up international communication via the Internet, and continues to be central to linking cultural, economic and political aspects of the global society. For centuries light has transcended all boundaries, including geographic, gender, age, culture and race, and is a tremendous subject to motivate education.
