March 2019 Newsletter - International Day of Light

Dear Supporters of the International Day of Light,

The enthusiasm and support for the second International Day of Light in 2019 is continuing at a tremendous rate. Activities have been successfully registered in more than 40 countries to celebrate light in science, technology, culture and more.

This newsletter highlights a selection of events that are being planned in Austria, India and Turkey covering themes of photonics, photography and photodynamics. As always, we are very grateful to all our partners (most of whom are volunteers) for their hard work in organizing local events.

Please make sure to register your event on our event calendar as soon as possible, and don’t hesitate to send us more details if you have them, as we’ll be delighted to consider this for our newsletter or website. Also remember that as mentioned in the previous newsletters, events do not have to be restricted to May 16.  As long as the events respect the goals of the International Day of Light, other dates can be a focus for a celebration.

We are also delighted to announce the advance programme for the the UNESCO-ICTP Illuminating Education Conference that will be held in Trieste, Italy on 16 May.  There is a very exciting programme planned to cover a range of topics that you will only see together at this unique kind of UNESCO organized event! Information about how to register can be found at either of the links above.

Please regularly check the IDL2019 website for updates and news items and continue to reach out to us on social media (@IDL2019) or by email if you have any questions about IDL or you want to share any idea or resources.  We can’t stress it often enough, but for a successful International Day of Light in 2019, your involvement is essential. With proclamation of an International Year of Light, UNESCO have given us the opportunity to celebrate light, and through this annual event, to strengthen our diverse communities. It is up to us to make the most of this opportunity, and so if you haven’t started to think about organizing something for 2019, now is the perfect time!

John Dudley and Joe Niemela
International Day of Light 2019

Download Social Media Graphics from the SPIE IDL Photo Contest

Show your support and enthusiasm for IDL 2019 now by updating your social media platforms with formatted graphics created by SPIE. The Society has created cover photos for Facebook, personal profile banners for LinkedIn, and header images for Twitter featuring photography from their 2018 SPIE IDL Photo Contest. All the images have been optimized for mobile as well. Once you update your accounts, tag your images and help spread the word about IDL via social media by using the official Day of Light hashtag #IDL2019.

You can download the graphics from this website.

High Lights: A day of light event!

The 2019 Day of Light event in Innsbruck on 16 May will be attended by top-class experts and scientists. The program includes lectures and demonstrations for both the general public and for scientists. The aim is of this event to provide the general public with insight into photonics; an exciting technology of the future.

Lectures Include:
•Highlights in photonics
•Diffractive lenses with variable refractive power
•Feel and see optics
•Opportunities and limitations of the new tunable White technology for lighting applications
•Quantum photonics - harnessing quantum states of light

Demonstrations Include:
•Ultra-short pulse lasers and functional surfaces
•Production of concave plastic diffraction gratings
•OpticalLED components and luminaires
•Photonics innovations for do-it-yourself builders

The full event program can be explored here.

The supporting program offers the opportunity to exchange ideas with the speakers and network with other participants afterwards. To learn more, visit our website or contact Alexandra Graber.

GTY Photodynamic Day

The GTU Photodynamic Day has been organised at the Gebze Technical University, Turkey since 2015. The first edition took place in the framework of the International Year of Light. The event is annual as of 2017 and the 2018 edition was also coupled to the International Day of Light.

This one-day international congress aims at encompassing all photodynamic-related topics. The most widely known photodynamic effect is the generation of singlet oxygen upon the irradiation of the photosensitiser at appropriate wavelengths, known as the Type II photosensitisation. In anti-cancer PDT, singlet oxygen and other ROS generated in cancer cells destroy cellular components. Antimicrobial PDT (aPDT), also known as photodynamic inactivation (PDI), is another usage of photodynamic processes, used to treat infections or for environmental purposes such as water purification. Finally, singlet oxygen is also useful in synthetic oxidations or for chemicals remediation.

Top-level speakers from around the world (including Malaysia, USA, France, Ireland, Norway and Italy) have participated in this event. We hope to continue on this momentum for the 2019 event planned for April 25^th. To learn more or to join the activities, please visit our website.

Become a Dark Skies Ambassador!

The International Astronomical Union is celebrating its 100^thanniversary in 2019 (IAU100). One of the IAU100 global projects, Dark Skies for All, aims to raise awareness for the preservation of quiet and dark skies and to claim the right for future generations to continue to access our true night skies. The project has now opened the registration for becoming one of its ambassadors for the IAU100 to protect dark skies.

The IAU100 Dark Skies Ambassadors is a program that invites keen enthusiasts worldwide to be dark sky advocates and to spread the word of the concern of light pollution. Dark Skies Ambassadors help organise and disseminate events through their networks, while encouraging others to participate. This program also stimulates a peer-supporting environment and provides visibility of events. There are three levels of participation for individuals or organizations (based on previous experience) who are interested in promoting dark sky protection. We encourage individuals and organisations to sign up as ambassadors and to organize activities. For example, ambassadors can organize actions around the UNESCO International Day of Light on 16 May 2019.

SPITI Photo Tour for a Cause

Celebrating Light at the World’s Highest Village

After a successful photography tour last year, the Spiti Photo Tour will once again organise an 8-day photography tour in the high altitude regions of Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India to raise awareness about light and the role it plays in the lives of those that live in the highest and remotest villages of the world. The initiative is a collaboration with Spiti Ecosphere, an internationally recognised award-winning social enterprise that has solar electrified villages and institutions across the Spiti valley - an area which limited to no electricity for extended periods. The tour will be lead by Saurabh Narang, an award-winning photographer with work published internationally, with a special focus on preserving the dark sky including astrophotography. The team will also travel to Komic Village, the World's highest village at an altitude of 4587m to capture the Komic Monastery under a starry night lit by solar lights. The Komic monastery was solar electrified by Ecosphere and now the resident monks enjoy the benefits of electricity every day. The event hopes to raise funds throughout the photography trip to support similar initiatives to light up lives of those in the Spiti valley.

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International Day of Light Secretariat · Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics ICTP · Str. Costiera 11 · Trieste, TS 34151 · Italy