Welcome Back to the WiO (semi) Weekly!
|
|
Greetings and welcome to the first edition of WiO-Weekly for the 2019 -2020 academic year!
If you’re new to this newsletter, WiO-Weekly is a bi-weekly newsletter distributed by the Women in Optics Chapter of the Wyant College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. The newsletter serves to inform of upcoming events, showcase WiO outreach in the community, and highlight inspiring people in Optical Sciences!
This year, WiO is focused on building community in optics--we believe that a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive optics community is essential to the advancement and success of the field. In the year ahead we’re addressing this philosophy in three major ways. First, we’re looking forward to working in tandem with the Student Optics Chapter (SOCk) and the Practical Optics Workshop (POW) to bring students together, connect students with the resources they need to succeed, and recruit new students into the exciting field of optics. Second, we look forward to growing our collaboration with the newly formed Women in Stem Student Council (WiSSC) and other U of A campus organizations to represent optics and promote diversity and inclusion in STEM on a university-wide platform. Third, we will continue our outreach efforts to encourage scientific literacy and involvement in the greater Tucson community.
As a reminder, WiO’s leadership positions and events are open to all University of Arizona students of any gender identity, graduate or undergraduate, who are passionate about the important role of diversity and inclusion in optics.
I'm excited to work with our newly elected WiO board to bring exciting and helpful programming to the optics community and beyond this year. If you’re a student or faculty/staff member, I encourage you to get involved with our student-run organizations during your time at OSC. Even if you’re only able to come to a single event or meeting, your unique perspective and presence help to build a college community we can all be proud of. To our “friends of WiO” outside of the college: please stay in touch and reach out to us, we love to hear from you!
So follow along, we hope to bring helpful, interesting, and inspiring content in this newsletter as the year progresses. Bear Down!
Best,
Kira Hart
President, Women in Optics
|
|
|
WiO Spotlight is a semi-weekly installment series where we talk with students, staff, and faculty to share our passions and connect with our community here at the Wyant College of Optical Sciences. This week we chat 3rd-year PhD Student and WiO Secretary, Charlotte Guthery. See more of her work here!
|
|
Where are you from?
I grew up just south of D.C. in Fairfax, Virginia. I lived in Rochester, NY for four years while getting my undergraduate degree, and now I’ve been in Tucson for over 2 years!
Do you have any pets?
I do! I have Daisy, an almost 14 year old rescue dog. She’s been with me for over 12 years, living with me in D.C., Rochester, and now Tucson.
|
|
|
What's your undergraduate background?
I got my undergraduate degree in Photographic Sciences with a minor in Math from Rochester Institute of Technology. The degree was a great mixture of photography and sciences. I ended up focusing my studies on astronomical photography and photographic instrumentation. The degree is very broad, so I also got experience with traditional photography, photomicroscopy, ophthalmic imaging, and image processing.
What inspires you about the field of optics?
In 2015 I got an astronomy REU at the National Solar Observatory, which is located on campus. During my time here I got to tour the mirror lab and all of the telescopes around Tucson. I was in awe of these massive optical structures and instantly knew that I wanted to work on them. Astronomy was always a field that interested me, but working on the optics used for this field was both exciting and rewarding. There was something inspiring about building systems to help us better understand things larger than our own world.
Tell us about your research.
I work in the Adaptive Optics Research Lab in OSC. Our lab is fairly broad in its projects, ranging from telescope engineering to adaptive optics system design. My dissertation project is developing a new wave-front sensor, called the Hybrid Wave-front Sensor. It uses a combination of two common wave-front sensors (Shack-Hartmann and Pyramid) to improve the accuracy of the wave-front measurements of an adaptive optics system. I’ve spent a year working on simulations to prove the theory of the project, but I’ve started working on the programming of an on-bench set-up.
|
|
What are some of your hobbies?
Art has always been a large part of my life. My mom is a fine art photographer, so I grew up going to gallery openings and art museums. Through highschool I found a love of creating art. Recently I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time making art, but I still try to find time to go to galleries and museums.
The photo on the left was taken in Scotland, circa 2013. Click here to check out Charlotte's website.
|
|
|
Why does diversity matter to you?
I experienced diversity issues throughout my life, especially once I began my STEM classes. It was difficult when I found myself as the only woman in certain classes or labs. It can become an unwelcoming environment and a struggle on top of the stress and pressure that university already has. An increase in diversity can help other women and minorities feel welcome in the community, and I hope to be able to support them through organizations like WiO.
|
|
|
|
Join the community over at the OSC slack uaopticsstudents.slack.com
Join the WiO community in the WiO weekly slack wioweekly.slack.com
Launching your Career
launchingyourcareer.weebly.com
|
|
|
|
Upcoming Events
September 12, 2019
WiO Meeting
Meinel 654
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
September 13, 2019
POW: Introduction to Optical Design using OpticStudio
Meinel 647
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks for reading the WiO Weekly, and we hope that your semester gets off to a great start! See you this Thursday in 654 for our second WiO meeting of the year
|
|
|
|
|
