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Message from the Dean
My appointment as Dean of CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics, began in January 1, 2009. My move from Boston University to take the helm of CREOL was a momentous personal decision, but it was not difficult to make, for CREOL is the perfect home for an optics and photonics aficionado like me, and is one of the world's foremost institutions for teaching and research in optics and photonics.
CREOL started in 1985 as a major research and education center, the 'Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers' (CREOL). Its founder, M. J. Soileau, a pioneer of optics education and research, was recently recognized by the Optical Society of America as recipient of its Esther Hoffman Beller Medal. When he moved on to lead the UCF overall effort in research and commercialization, Eric Van Stryland, past President of the Optical Society of America, took over and CREOL continued to prosper and gain more visibility within the national and international optics and photonics community. Like Soileau, Van Stryland gave CREOL unsurpassed devotion for many years. The act of these two giants will be difficult to follow and their shoes will be hard to fill.
CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics, is now one of 12 colleges at the University of Central Florida (UCF). It houses two major research centers: the 'Florida Photonics Center of Excellence' (FPCE), founded in 2003 by the Governor of Florida with a $10M grant, and the newly founded 'Townes Laser Institute' named after Charles Hard Townes, the inventor of the maser/laser. Many faculty members at other colleges and centers within UCF have affiliate appointments at CREOL, and research collaboration with our new College of Medicine is increasing. The CREOL faculty are recipients of numerous awards and honors and are world-renowned for their contributions to fundamental and applied optics and photonics, and optical engineering. The research performed by our students, faculty, visiting scientists, and postdoctoral students is disseminated nationally and internationally, with 200 papers published in reviewed journals in 2008. As Dean, a principal component of my mission is to maintain this level of excellence and to continue the growth of faculty in critical areas with the goal of offering our students a balanced education of the fundamental science and the state-of-the-art technology.
CREOL was initially founded by the State of Florida to promote growth in optics and related fields here in central Florida. Now there are more than 150 optics- and photonics-related companies in the region. And we provide the well-trained workforce that keeps the industry growing. The Florida Photonics Cluster is working to coordinate this industry’s efforts and needs, and we also receive strong support from the Florida High Tech Corridor Council and Enterprise Florida. We received more than $5M from industry last year, a connection that gives our students experience and a leg up on industry positions after they graduate. UCF has spun off over 21 successful photonics-based companies involving a wide variety of technologies. Thanks to the rich IP productivity in optics and photonics, in 2008 UCF was ranked in the top 10 of the “2008 Patent Scorecard for U.S. Universities.” UCF also ranked third in the industry impact category, which measures the role a university's patents play in serving as a foundation for other patents and technologies. The rankings were published in the September 2008 issue of Intellectual Property Today.
CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics is an exciting place to be. We offer a broad spectrum of research programs covering materials, devices, and applications, from THz and infrared to EUV and X-rays, including: lasers; optical fibers and optical communication; semiconductor optics and optoelectronics; integrated optics, nano-optics, and nonlinear optics; and image science and optical engineering. New biophotonics projects involving applications in biology and medicine are emerging. We offer an outstanding educational experience leading to the M.S. and the Ph.D. degree, and we have several international programs.
We hope you can find the information you need in this website. We rely on our ability to attract the best and brightest to CREOL, The College of Optics & Photonics, for our future success. Please contact us for more information and let us know what is missing and what we can improve.
Bahaa Saleh Dean
