The African Laser Centre hosts workshop on laser research

The African Laser Centre (ALC) is hosting a week-long workshop from 9 to 13 November 2011 organised by Stellenbosch University’s Laser Research Institute.

The aim of the workshop, according to Dr Paul Motalane who manages this virtual network, is to build laser research capacity continent-wide. “The workshop brings together MSc and PhD students from various ALC member institutes who will do presentations on their research projects,” he says.

“Plenary lectures which will be delivered by international experts at the workshop will expose our young research cadre to cutting-edge developments and high-level research skills within the field of photonics.”

ALC principal investigators will also impart their knowledge and expertise to the young researchers attending the workshop.

“The secondary aim of this workshop is to provide an environment for our principal investigators and their counterparts as well as our postgraduate students to interact among themselves,” says Motalane.

The internationally acclaimed researchers invited to the workshop will sit on the research peer-review panel to adjudicate research proposals for 2012.

“By adopting this procedure, we will address a challenge of the past in that the review panel only assessed submitted proposals without an opportunity to see and interact with ALC research community,” says Motalane.

The ALC will also hold its Annual General Meeting and Members Meeting during this period. By scheduling the meetings to coincide with the workshop, ALC members who are not necessarily research grant holders will have the opportunity to network with our research community members and they may be positively influenced to join the ALC research cohort in the future, explains Motalane.

“The level of research presentations at previous ALC workshops was such that the majority of presentations were subsequently published in high-impact journals,” says Motalane. “This indicates that the ALC training programme for young researchers is not only effective, but also contributes to the growth of photonics internationally.”

“Highly-trained postgraduates continue to attract the attention of reputable research institutes, both on the African continent and further afield. In this way the ALC contributes scarce science, engineering and technology skills that are much-needed for the socioeconomic development of particularly this continent.”

“Because of the availability of cutting-edge photonics infrastructure and the technical expertise at key ALC member nodes, we constantly attract researchers from the broader international community, thereby enhancing our pool of expertise and contributing to “brain-circulation” in our field,” says Motalane.