The BpAI-Biophotonics & Artificial Intelligence School was born in 2022 by the minds of Andrea Barucci, Ambra Giannetti and Francesca Rossi. All of them works as researchers at the Institute of Applied Physics-CNR in Florence but in different areas. Thanks to their different research fields ranging from optical biosensor, photonics and Artificial Intelligence, the idea of the BpAI School was born.

The European Optical Society Annual Meeting, EOSAM, will be held on 11 - 15 September 2023 in one of Europe's most charismatic cities, Dijon, the Unesco World Heritage site, and the gastronomy capital of Europe!  Each year EOSAM gathers together over 500 top researchers, key leaders, students and industry experts. EOSAM consists of a full week of novel research results presented from the widest range of optics and photonics fields.

The VISPEC school & conference on Vibrational Spectroscopy will be held during June 2023 in the beautiful city of Perugia, Italy. Dedicated to advances in all areas of vibrational spectroscopy, VISPEC is a unique opportunity to discuss and exchange cutting edge projects and ideas in this “vibrant” field.

Since 2013 the PLASMONICA network associated with the SIOF working group ‘Plasmonics and Nano-Optics’ has established itself as a prominent forum for researchers in the field of nanophotonics. After 10 years, the Workshop on Plasmonics and Nano-Optics will come back where it all started: at Politecnico di Milano, on 5–7 July 2023. Save the date and stay tuned! A call for abstract will be issued soon. The topics of the workshop include:

The previous SIOF Board ended its activities on December 31^st last year and new elections have been held for the Board members and for the new President-Elect, who will act as the Vice-President in 2023-2024 and as the President in 2025-2026. The Election Committee nominated by the General Assembly is happy to announce the names of the elected candidates:

SIOF VICE-PRESIDENT

·         Dr Ambra Giannetti (CNR IFAC)

SIOF BOARD

·         Dr Francesco Baldini (CNR IFAC)

SIOF is happy to announce that on January 1^st 2023 Luca De Stefano from CNR ISASI took office as the new President of the Italian Society for Optics and Photonics, following Paolo Biagioni who will still be a member of the SIOF Board as the Past President.

The ‘2023 ICTP Winter College on Optics: Terahertz Optics and Photonics’ will be held in Trieste on February 6^th-17^th, 2023. It will address a broad range of important technologies and applications that are made possible by the material properties in the spectral range confined between the millimeter wave and far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. While the 11^th November deadline for students applying for grants is now closed, European students who wish to participate without scholarships can still send their application.

LIMS 2022, the third edition of the scientific workshop LIMS, acronym of ‘Light, Imaging, Microscopy: Spectra of application’, will be organized at ENEA C.R.

We are happy to announce that the 8th edition of the Workshop on Plasmonics and its Applications, ‘PLASMONICA 2022’, will be held on July 7-8, 2022 in Turin, Italy. PLASMONICA is an annual conference aimed at bringing together a thriving community of researchers interested in Plasmonics and Nanophotonics. The third edition of the International School on Plasmonics and Nano-Optics will also be organized at the same venue on July 4-7, 2022.

This is a reminder that a call has been issued by SIOF in collaboration with the Italian Physical Society (SIF) to promote the organization of events organized by Master and PhD Students around Italy for the International Day of Light 2022, with a guest speaker from academy or industry. We would like to especially encourage active student chapters to profit from this possibility, which will cover expenses up to 1500 € per initiative.