The Schawlow-Townes Symposium is the major academic event of the Photonics Community at the University of Ottawa. It was established in 2012 to honour photonics pioneers Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes. Prof. Townes attended the inaugural event in this series and gave an inspiring lecture. The Schawlow-Townes Symposium is cosponsored by NRC, the National Research Council of Canada.

The fifth annual meeting of the MPC took place at MPL’s beautiful new building in Erlangen, Germany. The University of Ottawa sent 27 MPC members to attend this meeting. Over three days, about 30 oral presentations were given by MPC researchers, reporting on new ideas, potential collaborative projects as well as recent breakthroughs, initiating fruitful scientific discussions. We also took this opportunity to discuss the renewal of the Centre, and what we want to achieve over the next five years, which will be the second and final term of the MPC.

The fourth annual meeting of the MPC took place Ottawa, with 20 researchers from outside of Canada plus the MPC groups from Ottawa. During the one and a half day event, about 17 oral presentations were given by MPC researchers, reporting on new ideas, potential collaborative projects as well as recent breakthroughs, initiating fruitful scientific discussions. In total, over 77 researchers attended the meeting.

The MPC organized and hosted a summer school designed as an in-depth introduction to a wide variety of subjects in Photonics including twisted light, metamaterials, entanglement with photons, and ultrafast laser pulses. Lecturers included internationally recognized Canadian and International leaders in the fundamental and applied aspect of this field. The talks were specifically designed for senior undergraduates and master’s students.

The third annual meeting of the Max Planck – University of Ottawa Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics took place at Tabaret Hall in Ottawa. Sixteen MPC researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics met with the research groups from Ottawa. During the two-day event, about 25 oral presentations were given by MPC researchers and PIs, reporting on

The second annual meeting of the MPC took place at Ringberg Castle near Tegernsee in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps. A delegation of fourteen researchers from Canada met with the involved groups from MPL and MPQ. Over five days, about forty presentations were given by MPC researchers and PIs as well as other invited guests, reporting on progress of joint work and initiating scientific discussions and new collaborative research projects. In total, over sixty researchers attended the meeting.

The first official annual meeting of the Max Planck Centre (MPC) was held at the University of Ottawa’s main campus in downtown Ottawa. Fifteen researchers from Germany met with the Canadian groups of the MPC. Over three days, thirty presentations were given with the purpose of demonstrating the multiple research topics being explored by the researchers of the MPC, and to initiate scientific discussions and collaborative research projects. In total,

Every year the University of Ottawa’s Photonics Community organises and hosts a summer school designed as an in depth introduction for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.The school’s focus for 2014 was Ultrafast lasers and application. Lecturers were internationally recognized Canadian and International leaders in the fundamental and applied aspect of this field.

The Extreme Photonics and Quantum Photonics Summer School Summer School gathered  16 top researchers from all over the world to give graduate-level talks on a variety of topic in Extreme and Quantum Photonics. It was a unique opportunity to deepen participant's knowledge in this field with some of the best research in the world, while expanding their professional network.

In the run-up to the creation of the Max Planck-uOttawa Centre for Extreme and Quantum Photonics, international workshops were held to initiate research collaborations between the uOttawa CERC Research Group and the Leuchs Division of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light. The first of such meetings was an intense 4 day workshop intended to reinforce existing collaborations and kickstart many others.

This workshop brought together a small group of distinguished researchers in the field of Photonic Crystal for intense technical discussions on the status of the field and  on future directions.