Careers in Photonics Forum

Careers in Photonics Forum 

Those iInterested in optics / photonics, but were not sure where it could take them, were given an opportunity to listen to delegates from industry, research and academia on what's out there in the "real world"! This was held on the evening of Wednesday 12th September at the University of Sydney School of Physics.

 

Our Speakers:

• Dr. Ian Clarke - Optium Australia

"Would you work for this company?"

The first step to have a successful and useful career in optics is to avoid working for a company that's driving off a cliff. But can you judge what technology is going to be successful? Is your physics good enough to spot the technical disasters-in-the-making? Is your businesssense good enough to spot the commercial disasters? Or will you still be aligning your laser as the auctioneer is labeling up your equipment?

This is a light hearted talk with lots of snippets from engineering, physics and business and plenty of chances to test your insights. I hope you enjoy it, if it happens to save you some years of wasted effort, that wouldn't be a bad thing either...

• Prof. Ben Eggelton - CUDOS (formerly of Lucent/Bell Labs)

Prof. Eggleton was a researcher and Director at Lucent Technologies (formerly Bell Laboratories) where he was responsible for the invention of many photonic devices and their patents. He is now the Director of CUDOS at the University of Sydney, directing research towards the "photonic chip" capable of all-optical signal processing. Prof. Eggleton will share his experiences in management & device research in industry, as well as in academia.

• Dr. Ross Halgren - Redfern Broadband Networks (former Head of AWA Optical Communications Lab)

"Balancing optical product features for the global market vs optical product features demanded by channel partners". 

The Australian situation for optical start-ups generally requires to them to hook up with high profile channel partners to access the global optical market and the impact that such partnerships can have on the global competitiveness of its optical products. Examples will be given of RBN's optical products and their features and how these were driven by partners in a direction that benefited the partner but didn't necessarily maximise the competitiveness of the product for the global optical market. Examples will also be given where the mature market knowledge and experience of the partner drove some of RBN's optical product features in a more profitable direction than it had originally envisaged.