The International Commission for Optics (ICO)
Committee for the Regional Development of Optics

• Report of the Chair of the CREDO, Prof. A.M. Guzman to the ICO Bureau 2007 meeting, held in Accra, Ghana (17-18, November 2007)

The ICO Committee for the Regional Development of Optics (CREDO) was established to find and implement actions whereby ICO can promote and facilitate the transfer of optical knowledge and provide practical help to optical scientists and engineers in developing nations and geographical areas where optics is not well established as a field of study. An important goal of this committee is to expand and organize activities on optics in those regions and to help the research communities of developing countries organize for greater interaction with the international optics community.

CREDO consists of a chair, the immediate past-chair, ICO President and Secretary (ex officio), members of the ICO Bureau including the ICO Vice-presidents from China and the African Laser, Atomic and Molecular Physics Network, and regional subcommittees for Latin America, Asia and Africa.

ICO is in liaison with the Technical Committee on Optics and Photonics of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that deals with standardization of terminology, requirements, interfaces and test methods in the field of optics and photonics. Since 2006 the Committee for the Regional Development of Optics assumed the duties of the former Standards Committee and will serve as a channel of communication for work on standards in optics, in relation with ISO. The direct ICO contact with ISO is Prof. Maria L. Calvo, ICO Secretary.

Chair: Angela M. Guzmán H. (VP)

Past Chair: Giancarlo Righini.

Members of the ICO Bureau: Guofan Jin (VP), Ahmadou Wagué (VP), Hervé Lefèvre (VP), Gert von Bally (Associate Secretary), Ari.T. Friberg (President, ex officio), Maria L.. Calvo (Secretary General, ex officio).

Members of the Latin-American Subcommittee: Myriam Tebaldi (Argentina), Hypolito Kalinowski (Brazil), Carlos Treviño (Mexico)

Members of the Asian Subcommittee: Anurag Sharma (India), Imrana Ashraf Zahid (Pakistan), Sarun Sumriddetchkajorn (Thailand).

Members of the African Subcommittee: Dr. Zohra Ben Lakhdar (Tunisia), Paul Buah-Bashuah (Ghana), Sidiki Diomande (Côte d'Ivoire), Mohamed Semlali (Morocco).

General goals of the Committee for the period 2005-2008

• Develop strategies that continue to help ICO be the place where the world of optics meet. Give more international diffusion to the ICO programs like the traveling lecturer program, ICO conferences and ICO Topical Meetings.
• Advocate continuous support by the ICO of activities and initiatives of the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). ICTP has long helped researchers in developing countries to break their isolation, remain updated, and establish contact with researchers from different countries and different cultures. ICTP has served as the incubator for many international research collaborations, and ICO is fortunate to be in close collaboration with ICTP in its efforts to expand knowledge and research in optics in specially disfavored regions. CREDO will work towards strong international involvement in the mentor program recently launched by ICTP, as well as for a further strengthening of permanent research activities on optics at ICTP.
• Create an ICO Committee for Women in Optics. Young women, both in developed and developing countries, often face difficult choices between family and professional life. CREDO will promote the creation of a network and an ICO Committee for Women in Optics, that would serve to establish better communication between senior and junior women researchers and between women working in developed and developing countries. Through these activities CREDO intends to increase the international visibility of women researchers on optics, to involve senior women researchers in serving as role model and advisors for the younger generation, to help awaken awareness of the difficulties that women researchers face in order to improve their working conditions, and to help promote initiatives of women researchers worldwide.
• Facilitate the delivery of educational tools in optics to developing countries. Optics provides an especially good vehicle for introducing young people to science and to motivate them for further questioning and exploration of nature. Efforts by the international optical societies, ICO, and researchers in developed countries to create educational web pages and optical kits should have a worldwide impact, especially in developing countries. CREDO will work closely with the Education Committee to promote the international diffusion of tools, materials, and education methodologies that could benefit developing countries.

The Latin-American Subcommittee:

Members: Myriam Tebaldi, Hypolito Kalinowski, Carlos Treviño

The Latin American Region consists of seven ICO Territories, whose international visibility has increased significantly during a period of rapid growth in research and teaching in optics. This growth has been accompanied by the development of organizational structures and the establishment of links with international societies like the OSA and SPIE and a closer relationship with the ICO. The subcommittee has the following specific goals for the period 2005-2008.

• Create a Latin American network on Optics. A Latin American Network of research groups will favor mutual knowledge and forge international collaboration and the exchange and sharing of resources. Many possibilities for student grants and financial support provided by Latin America's national science foundations for projects involving international collaborations remain largely unused due to lack of information. The Latin American Network on Optics will initiate activities by creating a web page www.redola.org hosted initially by INAOE in Mexico with appropriate links to the web pages of the different research groups in Latin America. Given the availability of Internet access throughout Latin America, this action will motivate the different groups to build their own web pages and to display their achievements and interest world wide.
• Further promote the realization of a rotating Latin American School on Optics. Since optics is a powerful tool for regional development in Latin America, there have already been efforts in the region to organize regular series of Schools on Optics that are clearly intended to establish bridges between basic research, applications, and bases for technological development. The Subcommittee will help by coordinating those efforts and serving as their advocate in front of the international community.
• Strengthening of local Optics communities. The subcommittee will promote the creation of organizational structures of optical communities of Latin American researchers and propend for their affiliations to international societies that center their activities in optics and strongly related areas. In countries where there exist strong optical societies, the subcommittee will promote new and meaningful international agreements with the international societies or a revitalization of already existing agreements that could favor the professional activities of their members.
• Promote the affiliation of new ICO Territories. Some Latin American countries have a growing and very active research community in optics but are still not ICO Territories. The subcommittee will work to increase the international visibility of those communities and encourage and facilitate their joining the ICO.
• Collaborate in the organization of RIAO-OPTILAS'2007 and in other initiatives to organize local activities in optics in developing countries.

The Asian Subcommittee:

Members: Anurag Sharma, Imrana Ashraf Zahid, Sarun Sumriddetchkajorn

The Asian Subcommittee seeks to promote interaction between optics researchers and educators in Asian countries, to increase the interaction of these countries with the ICO and the international optics community, and to encourage countries with sizeable optics communities to become members of the ICO. The specific goals of the Asian Subcommittee for the period 2005-2008 are the following:

• Develop Regional Networks: An efficient way to forge cooperation between countries within a region is through the establishment of regional networks that interact not only among themselves but also with the ICO and other international optics organizations. We propose four networks: South Asian, with India taking the lead; East Asian, with Thailand and/or the Philippines taking the lead; West Asian, with leadership from Iran; and North Asian, with China leading. These regional networks will encourage interaction among their members by promoting regional conferences and meetings on optics and through the exchange of students. Interaction among the networks and with other international communities will be promoted by the ICO Asian Subcommittee.
• Organize Tutorials and Advanced Workshops: Efforts will be made to organize tutorials and advanced workshops on optics to expose the community, including professors and graduate students, to new developments in optics. The workshops will also promote the improvement of optics education and more widespread inclusion of optics in science and engineering education.
• Create an Asian Conference on Optics: A long term goal will be the creation of an Asian Conference on Optics organized by the regional networks and held in different countries by rotation. A first such conference, to be held as early as 2007, might reasonably be organized and promoted by the Optical Society of India, opening and advertising to participants from other countries an already existing Indian conference.
• Promote Asian Participation in Photonics-2008: India has established a series of biennial international conferences on Photonics, now scheduled for December 2006 and December 2008. These meetings have large international participation, but little participation by researchers/educators from Asian countries other than India. The organizing committees of these conferences, beginning with Photonics-2008, will be urged to increase participation from Asian countries.

The African Subcommittee:

Members: Dr. Zohra Ben Lakhdar, Paul Buah-Bashuah, Sidiki Diomande, Mohamed Semlali

The African Subcommittee will center its efforts on improving education on optics. Its activities are therefore closely linked to, and will be developed in close collaboration with the ICO Education Committee. The specific goals of the African Subcommittee for the period 2005-2008 are the following:

• Organize a School or regular College on optics for secondary school teachers. There is already one school on education on optics to be held in Tunisia, that involves training activities on the use of optical kits. The subcommittee will promote similar schools on optics education to be held in other countries in the upcoming years.
• Consecution of optical kits: Look for donations or acquisition of appropriate optical kits for the school on optics education and for Universities in Africa.

To the Optics Community worldwide:

The ICO Committee for Regional Development welcomes input from the optics and photonics community worldwide concerning its purposes, goals, and activities, and it encourages both initiatives and volunteer participation in its activities through the ICO Territorial Committees and Representatives and/or the Subcommittees for Regional Development.

Contacts:

Prof. Angela M. Guzmán, D. Sc.
Professor Emeritus, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
P.O. Box 812530 Boca Raton, FL 33481-2530, USA.
Cel. Phone: +1 (561) 313-8204
FAX: +1 (561) 297-3418
e-mail: amguzmanh@unal.edu.co

Professeur Ahmadou Wagué
Département de Physique
Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Fac des Sciences et Techniques,
DAKAR, Sénégal
Phone: +221-8.25.69.80
Fax: +221-8.25.69.80
e-mail: wague@ucad.refer.sn

Prof. Guofan Jin
Department of Precision Instruments,
Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China,
Phone +86 10 627 823 34,
Fax +86 10 627 845 03 or +86 10 627 846 691,
e-mail: jgf-dpi@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

Prof. Hervé LEFÈVRE
IXCORE SAS, Vice President & CTO
52 avenue de Europe, F-78160 Marly-le-Roi (France)
Phone : +33 (0) 1 30 08 88 88
Fax : +33 (0) 1 30 08 88 00
e-mail : herve.lefevre@ixcore.com

Dr. Giancarlo Righini
Commissione Italiana de Ottica, President
"Nello Carrara" Inst. of Appl.Physics,CNR
Via Panciatichi 64, 50127 FIRENZE, Italy
Phone: +39 055 423 5239
Fax: +39 055 412878
e-mail: g.c.righini@ifac.cnr.it
Società Italiana di Ottica e Fotonica (Italian Society of Optics and Photonics)

Dra. Myrian Cristina Tebaldi
Centro de Investigaciones Ópticas (CIOp)
Camino Parque Centenario entre 505 y 508, Gonnet, Argentina
Casilla de Correo 124, La Plata (1900), Argentina
Phone: +54 (221) 484-2957
Fax: +54 (221) 471-2771
e-mail: myrian_tebaldi@hotmail.com

Prof. Hypolito José Kalinowski, D.Sc.
Federal University of Technology - Paraná
(Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná - UTFPR)
Av. Sete de Setembro, 3165 80230-901 Curitiba, Brazil
Phone: +55.41.3310-4689
Fax:+55.41.3310-4683
e-mail: hjkalin@cpgei.cefetpr.br

Dr. Carlos G. Treviño-Palacios
INAOE
Optoelectronics Science and Engineering Group
Apartado Postal 51 y 216
Puebla Pue 72000
México
Phone: +52 (222) 266-31-00 ext 1210
Fax: +52 (222) 247-29-40
e-mail: carlost@inaoep.mx

Prof. Anurag Sharma
Professor, Physics Department,
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
NEW DELHI - 110 016 INDIA
Phone: +91-11-2659-1350
Fax: +91-11-2658 1114
e-mail: asharma@physics.iitd.ac.in, asharma_iitd@yahoo.co.in

Prof. Dr. Imrana Ashraf Zahid
Department of Physics,
Quaid-i-Azam University,
P.O. Box 45320
Islamabad 44000,
Pakistan.
Phone: +92-51-282-4285
e-mail: iashraf@qau.edu.pk or dimrana@isb.paknet.com,pk

Dr. Sarun Sumriddetchkajorn
National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA)
Ministry of Science and Technology
112 Thailand Science Park
Phahonyothin Rd.
Klong 1, Klong Luang
Pathum Thani 12120
Thailand.
e-mail: sarun.sumriddetchkajorn@nectec.or.th

Dr. Paul Buah-Bassuah
Laser and Fibre Optics Centre
Dept of Physics,
Univ. of Cape Coast,
Cape Coast, Ghana
Phone: +233 42 33773
Fax: +233 42 32446
e-mail: lafoc@ghana.com

Dr. Zohra Ben Lakhdar
Universite de Tunis
Laboratoire de Physique Atomique Moleculaire
Faculte des Sciences
Departement de Physique
Campus Universitaire
1002 Tunis
Tunisia
e-mail: zohra.lakhdar@utunis.mu.tn

Prof. Kedro Sidiki Diomandé
Université Nationale de Côte d'Ivoire
Département de Physique, Faculté Sciences
B.P. 582, 22 ABIDJAN, Côte d'Ivoire
e-mail: kedro.diomande@cnra.ci or diomkap@yahoo.fr

Professeur Mohammed Semlali
Société Marocaine d'Optique (SMOP)
Faculté des Sciences
Université Mohammed V ¬ Agdal
B.P.: 8811 Rabar-Agdal, Morocco
Phone: 212 66 30 06 51
Fax: 212 37 77 74 70
e-mail: medsemlali@hotmail.com