The United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point NY is the premier leader development school in the nation with a mission to educate, train and inspire future Army leaders.  Situated at USMA is the Photonics Research Center, which has a threefold mission to educate both cadets and officers, conduct basic and applied research, and support the Army and DoD in the area of lasers and photonics.  In November 2000 the National Research Council approved the Center as a postdoctoral associate research site.  The Center is staffed by faculty from varied disciplines working on such projects as high energy lasers, spectroscopy, and optical communications.

Recent advances in laser technology enabled the development of cheap yet powerful lasers accessible to the public. The modern lasers are capable of propagating across significant distances with minimal attenuation and loss in power. The misused publicly accessible lasers pose challenges and hazards to the public safety since they can dazzle electro-optical systems and damage the human eyes. Therefore, it is of a great interest to investigate a broad series of laser effects on various electro-optical systems across a broad range of parameters. The goal of the research project is to elucidate safe operating regimes for electro-optical systems and eyes under various laser illuminations and atmospheric backgrounds.

There is a post-doc opportunity available starting this fall at the Photonics Research Center at West Point. See attached for more information, and email CPT Dan Konopa directly if you are interested or have any questions.