Prof. Johnson invited to participate in IYL2015 in Paris

Dr. Anthony Johnson has been invited to take part in the official launch of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL2015), which will be held at UNESCO Headquarters on 19 and 20 January 2015 in Paris France. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL2015) recognizing the importance of light-based technologies in meeting the needs of humankind. Examples include improving access to information, promoting sustainable development, increasing societal health and well-being, achieving environmental goals by saving energy and reducing global warming, and also the influence of light-based technologies on human culture and art through the visual arts and cultural heritage. The International Year will also be an auspicious occasion to commemorate a series of important milestones in the history of the science of light, dating back 1000, 200, 150, 100 and 50 years. In 1815, Fresnel in France introduced the theory of light as a wave; in 1865, Maxwell in England described the electromagnetic theory of light; in 1915, Einstein in Switzerland developed General Relativity which confirmed the centrality of light in both space and time; and in 1965, Penzias and Wilson in the United States discovered the Cosmic Microwave Background, an echo of the origin of the universe. In addition, the year 2015 represents a millennium that has passed since the publication of the great works on optics by Ibn al-Haytham, during a period of an incredible blossoming of creativity and innovations called the Islamic Golden Age.