2025 Optica Women Scholars Conference experience sharing/2025 年 Optica 女性學者會議經驗分享
This year I was very lucky to attend the 2025 Optica Women Scholars Conference in Munich, Germany. Optica is the leading society in optics and photonics, and in their Optica Women Scholarship program, Optica chooses 20 women pursuing their Masters or Bachelors degree across the globe to fund their research. In 2024, I was chosen as one of the Optical Women Scholars. Every year Optica chooses a city to gather all past years recipients of the scholarship, to let them meet each other and grow a professional network during the Optica Women Scholars Conference.
今年我非常幸運地參加了在德國慕尼黑舉辦的 2025 年 Optica 女性學者會議 (2025 Optica Women Scholars Conference)。Optica 是光學與光電領域的領先學會，在其 Optica 女性獎學金（Optica Women Scholars）計劃中，每年會從全球選出 20 位正在就讀碩士或學士學位的女性，資助她們的研究。我在 2024 年被選為其中一位 Optica 女性學者。每年，Optica 都會選擇一座城市，邀請歷年來獎學金得主齊聚一堂，讓她們在 Optica 女性學者會議中彼此交流、拓展專業人脈。
On the first day of the program, we arrived in Stuttgart, to attend the Berthold Leibinger Stiftung Awards Ceremony. Along with the other ceremony attendants, we had a private tour of the TRUMPF Laser Applications Center, located in Ditzingen. During the tour, we were shown examples of devices that TRUMPF company uses, and learned about the history of the company. I was surprised to find out that 3D laser cutting is even used in automotive manufacturing!
在計畫的第一天，我們抵達了斯圖加特，參加了 Berthold Leibinger Stiftung 獎項頒獎典禮。與其他出席典禮的貴賓一同，我們參觀了位於迪琴根的 TRUMPF 激光應用中心。參觀過程中，我們見識了 TRUMPF 公司所使用的各種設備，並了解了公司歷史。令我驚訝的是，原來 3D 激光切割技術竟然已經應用於汽車製造業！
Following this, we had a unique chance to attend the 2025 Berthold Leibinger Stiftung Awards Ceremony. The Berthold Leibinger foundation aims to further develop innovative science, and every year the laser innovators whose research yielded a remarkable new finding or application receive this award. This year, the innovations were outstanding as expected, just to give two examples: the Team HORUS from ZEISS company received Second Prize for inventing new laser eye correction technique they named “SMILE”, and Prof. Dr. Jun Ye received Zukunftspreis (“future prize”) for his Optical Clocks and Frequency Metrology research. Because of his research, we now have an Optical Quantum clock, that is so precise that if you start it at the big bang (13.8 billion years ago) it will only be off by 4 seconds today!
隨後，我們有幸參加了 2025 年的 Berthold Leibinger Stiftung 獎項頒獎典禮。Berthold Leibinger 基金會旨在促進創新科學的發展，每年，對於在激光領域中取得顯著新發現或新應用的研究者，會頒發此項獎項。今年的創新成果如預期般令人驚艷，僅舉兩個例子：來自 ZEISS 公司的 HORUS 團隊因發明了一種名為「SMILE」新的激光眼睛矯正技術，榮獲二等獎；而 Jun Ye 教授則因其在光學時鐘與頻率測量領域的研究，獲得了 Zukunftspreis（德文翻譯成「未來獎」）。正是由於他的研究，我們現在擁有一種光學量子時鐘，其精度極高，即使從大爆炸（138 億年前）開始計時，到今天的誤差也只有 4 秒！
在第二天，我們的團隊參觀了位於斯圖加特的梅賽德斯－賓士博物館。博物館裡擠滿了人群，不僅有來自各地的遊客，還有許多德國家庭，他們來此學習這片土地的驕傲文化！博物館展示的不僅是梅賽德斯－賓士公司本身的歷史，還有整個汽車產業在整個人類文明中的發展脈絡。汽車產業是德國人熱衷的事業，可以說，對德國而言，汽車產業的重要性與半導體產業對臺灣的地位不相上下。
On the third day, we attended the Optica Women scholars conference itself. 8 inspiring female Optica mentors were selected to attend this conference with us, coming from industry, academia, or even building their companies and startups! Many of them have PhD in photonics, but some don't come from academica background and still built very successful careers in photonics companies. We had a chance to hear lectures on how to approach industry, how to support and promote women in science and even on how to start your own startup! After the lectures, we had a mentoring session, where we sat around a table with mentors one by one, and asked questions that bothered us about the photonics industry, career or even personal questions about their path.
在第三天，我們參加了 Optica 女性學者年會。八位令人鼓舞的女性 Optica 導師被選中與我們一同參加這次會議，她們來自業界、學術界，甚至有些是創辦自己公司或新創企業的創業家！許多導師擁有光電、光學博士學位，但也有些並非來自學術背景，卻依然在光子學公司中建立了非常成功的職業生涯。我們有機會聆聽關於如何接觸業界、如何支持並促進女性在科學領域的發展，甚至還有如何創業的講座！講座結束後，我們進行了導師指導環節，大家圍坐在桌旁，逐一與導師們交流，提問有關光電產業、職業發展，甚至是關於她們個人職業道路的問題。
On the fourth and fifth days, we were attending the Laser World of Photonics Congress at ICM - International Congress Center Messe München. Scientists and representatives of large companies and startups from all around the world gathered here to exhibit their research, applications, equipment and devices to find clients, partners or even recruit new hires. Some of the Optica Women Scholars were presenting posters at the ECBO conference (European Conference on Biomedical Optics) with results of their research, and we met many of our mentors at booths of the companies. We were offered a tour around selected companies, many of them famous like Thorlabs, Edmund Optics, CORNING, and some of the companies doing innovative research like JENOPTIK, TOPTICA and PHIX. It was exciting to see how many applications photonics have in different areas of industry, and how crucial photonic technologies are for industrial progress!
在第四和第五天，我們參加了於慕尼黑國際會展中心（ICM - International Congress Center Messe München）舉行的激光光子學世界大會：Laser World of Photonics Congress。來自世界各地的科學家、大型企業及新創公司代表齊聚一堂，展示他們的研究成果、應用、設備與裝置，尋找客戶、合作夥伴，甚至招募新員工。部分 Optica 女性學者在 ECBO 會議（European Conference on Biomedical Optics）上展示了她們研究的海報，並與我們的導師們在各公司展位上碰面。我們還獲得了參觀一些選定公司機構的機會，其中許多是知名公司，如 Thorlabs、Edmund Optics 和 CORNING；還有一些進行創新研究的公司，如 JENOPTIK、TOPTICA 和 PHIX。能夠看到光電子學技術在各行各業中的應用，並且了解光電技術對工業進步的重要性，讓我們感到無比興奮！