Meet Mike RICHARDSON – a photonics advocate, a healthcare refugee, and a big enthusiast of Poland and Polish science – we had a chance to talk with him right before his journey to Kyiv. Mike shared with us things that make our 38 million people country outstanding. We talked about Polish science and Łukasiewicz – IMiF that is seen from the outside. Let’s delve more into this!
Mike, why photonics?
Well, the world changed for me a little over four years ago. First, I stay current with scientific developments, especially in the realm of spectroscopy. Yet, I was not aware of the term photonics until four years ago, when attending an event in Berlin and heard two people speak. The first, Michael Liehr, the former CEO of AIM Photonics, gave a presentation about photonic integrated circuits and use cases.
Then the follow-up presentation, Carlos Lee, EPIC. When I saw this, I had no idea that we can manipulate light via wave guidance on a two-dimensional structure, it made my brain explode in a very good way. Thanks to the information they presented, I visualized and understood what photonics is. Connecting all dots in my mind very quickly, I saw the possibilities and realized why I want to work in this industry.
After the presentations, there was a speaker’s corner and nobody was conversing with the speakers. So, myself being rather outgoing, loud, and unafraid, struck up a conversation with Michael Liehr and Carlos Lee, then they took me out to dinner and changed the world – by introducing me to the photonics community.
The idea that we can manipulate and control light in a similar fashion to how we control electrons is, for me, deeply revolutionary, I see many possibilities, over time and have seen possibilities become reality.
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