Published: Aug. 31, 1999

Three members of the CU-Boulder-headquartered Optoelectronics Computing Systems Center were selected by the Optical Society of America to represent the U.S. optics industry at a recent U.S. House of Representatives reception.

Hosted by the Coalition for National Science Funding, the event was designed to highlight past results of government-supported science and to illustrate the benefits and need for continued federal support.

The CU-Boulder representatives were OCSC Director John Neff, Associate Director for Industry Brian Hooker and graduate student John Metz. The three met individually with a Colorado congressional contingent including U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, U.S. Rep. Mark Udall and several staff members of U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

OCSC is a joint venture of CU-Boulder and Colorado State University and is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute and Industry. The center has spawned more than a dozen "spin-off"companies in the Boulder-Denver area.

Initially founded with a $5 million grant from NSF in 1987, OCSC has become one of the most productive and prestigious NSF Engineering Research Centers in the nation. The center involves more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students and develops new technologies to support the use of light and electrons to carry, process and store information for computing.

For more information contact Roberto Gonzalez of OCSC at (303) 492-5069 or Jim Scott in the CU-Boulder News Services Office at (303) 492-3114.