Newsletter Vol 30, Number 10
June 2026 | | | | Table of Contents
- From the President
- June OSSC Meeting - 75-Year OSSC History Celebration
- OSSC Election -Last Chance to Vote
- Register Now For Mount Wilson Viewing
- 2026 Summer Conferences
- Quantum California: Building the Future Technology
- Howard Cary: Optical Innovator, Instrument Maker, and OSSC Founder
- A Brief 30-Year History of OSSC Website
- Outreach Activities
- Optics Education
- Attention Students
- OSSC Website Sponsors
- OSSC Corporate Members
- Welcome New OSSC Members
| | | From The President
Donn Silberman
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Hello OSSC Members and Friends,
Welcome to the OSSC June 2026 Newsletter. I hope you can attend our June meeting at the Holiday Inn LAX Gateway in Torrance to enjoy the friendship of your fellow OSSC members and other guests. This will be a very special meeting as we celebrate 75 years of service to the Southern California Optics Community. We will also be announcing the results of our 2026-2027 Officer Elections and inducting 4 OSSC members to Fellow status. We will have our OSSC Fellows Induction Booklet at this meeting (still passing out printed copies) that will also have information on the OSSC History and Formation and the OSSC History Project. Our ‘technical presentation’ will be “The History of the OSSC – A Panel Review and Discussion with Past Presidents and Fellows. Our Panelists will be OSSC Past Presidents Eric Ford (1992-1993), Susan Rico (1996-1997) and Reddy Chirra (2001-2002), and Scott Rowe (2011-2012) will be our Moderator.
Read More>
| | |  | Last Chance to Vote for OSSC Officers | On-line voting is now open for the election of officers for the 2026- 2027 active period. Elected officers serve on the Board of Directors of the OSSC starting July 1, 2026, and are voting members of our Leadership Team.
You must be an OSSC Member to vote. Don't forget to log-on.
The election will close and the results announced at our annual business Meeting on June 10, 2026, at about 7:00 PM.
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You will have an opportunity to view candidate biographies during the voting process.
Don't wait until the last minute!
Vote on-line using the link below.
Vote Now!
The Leadership Team guides our Society through all of our activities including regular monthly meetings, special events, and education & outreach activities. The team also manages the Society's membership and finances and communicates with our members through our website, newsletter, emails, and via social media.
If you are interested in volunteering in any capacity, please contact OSSC President Donn Silberman at President@ossc.org.
| Mount Wilson Viewing Filling Up Soon
| | The OSSC is finalizing the details of our next viewing party at the Mount Wilson Observatory where we will spend half the night viewing astronomical object using the famed Hooker 100-inch telescope. The event will take place on August 8 and will include an engineering tour, pot-luck dinner, and the chance to spend the night at the Monastery Dormitory where Albert Einstein and Edwin Hubble slept.
Sign up today before the remaining spots are taken.
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As we conclude this OSSC meeting cycle with our annual business dinner meeting and our 75th Anniversary Celebration, we would like to thank everyone who joined us throughout the season. While our regular meetings will take a summer pause, OSSC will return on September 9 — be sure to save the date!
In the meantime, we invite you to stay connected with the optics and photonics community through the many exciting conferences happening this summer. Whether your interest is in emerging quantum technologies at SPIE Photonics for Quantum, expanding your international perspective at the Italian Conference on Optics and Photonics (ICOP) and Optica ImageSense Congress in the Netherlands, or joining locally at SPIE Optics + Photonics in San Diego. Stay active, connected, and engaged with the broader optics community until we meet again in September.
| | | Quantum California: Building the Future Technology |
In May, UC San Diego and the Qualcomm Institute hosted the Quantum California San Diego Convening (QSDC26), an event that brought together leaders from academia, industry, startups, government, and national laboratories to discuss the future of California’s quantum ecosystem. The meeting showed how California is positioning itself to become a global leader in quantum science and technology, spanning quantum computing, secure communications, sensing, advanced manufacturing, workforce development, and post-quantum cybersecurity. Read More>
| | | Howard Cary: Optical Innovator, Instrument Maker, and OSSC Founder | | Howard Cary (03 May 1908 - 19 Dec 1991) was the founding president of the Optical Society of Southern California (OSSC) when the organization was established in 1951 and served until 1952. He was also co-founder and chairman of the board of Cary Instruments, originally the Applied Physics Corporation in Monrovia, California, and later served on the board of directors of Varian.
A Los Angeles native, Cary graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1930 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Among his classmates was Roland C. Hawes, who later became OSSC president in 1956–57 and was named an OSSC Fellow. After college, Cary joined National Technical Laboratories in Pasadena, later known as Beckman Instruments.
| | | A Brief 30-Year History of OSSC Website |
Since 1996, the OSSC Website has been our portal to share news, meeting announcements, and other information with members, friends, and curious visitors. Over the decades, the website has grown from providing little more than meeting information and membership applications to become a comprehensive collection of tools to manage membership data, events, finances and multiple modes of communication. The website now includes a wealth of pages, documents, presentations, meetings vides along with other information and resources. The Internet Archive WayBack Machine was used to create this presentation showing how the OSSC Website has evolved over the years.
A Brief 30-Year History of the OSSC Website | AAPT Physics Education
Summer Meeting |
Be part of the American Association of Physics Teachers community at the 2026 AAPT Summer Meeting, where educators, researchers, and students come together to exchange innovative teaching strategies, research, and best practices in physics education. Join us in Pasadena, California, July 19–22, 2026, for an engaging and transformative experience.
| Outreach Opportunities
The OSSC seeks volunteers for upcoming events being organized by our friends at Vital Link and The Girl Scouts of Orange County and many more. If you are interested please contact us at Outreach@ossc.org.
| | | Final Notes
We love publishing news from our members including profiles, activities, white papers, and new products from our OSSC Corporate Members. Send your input to Newsletter@ossc.org. Please include the word "newsletter" in the subject line of your email. | Learn more about professional education opportunities on the OSSC website. | Students Members receive a meal discount at our regular meetings. If you qualify as a Student Member but do not see the discount, your membership probably needs to be updated. Please contact Memberships@ossc.org to have your membership changed to Student Member before registering for the next meeting.
Student Members are Individual Members who are currently enrolled in school at least part-time and are not working full-time.
| | | Suzy Angulo
Ace Calvert
Ian E Carson
Keyla Chavez
Seong Choi
Nicolas I Colon
Anthony DeLaCruz
Gabriel Delao
Alan Distancia
Alberto Duron
Hrag Ekmekjian
Theophile Ewing
Eric Ford
Virginia Ford
Aidan Garcia
George Ellery Hale
Grant Hallock
| Helen Hoblitzelle
David Ibanez
Prateek Jain
Alexander Kuyper
Asad Mahmood
Alex Merino
Daniel Moreno
Seth MyLymuk
Charles D Norton
Javier J Pazos
David Perez
Kevin J Romero
Isaac Sanchez
Kadin Severs
Annie Tran
Lucas Valdez
Derek Wan
Chelsea Zonick | | | We value your membership and appreciate your support! | Optical Society of Southern California
www.ossc.org
Box 228, 2312 Park Avenue
Tustin, California 92782
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