A Little Light Listening
Lighting up the world of Photonics
Photonics is the science and technology of generating, controlling and detecting light. Photonics research uses a part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, from ultraviolet (UV) light, visible light and infrared (IR) light. This means you can see some photonic technologies with your eyes but other technologies are invisible to the human eye.
A Little Light Listening is a podcast by IPIC where we cover the latest developments in light-based science and technology. This regular podcast features STEM and non-STEM experts from Ireland and around the world. We explore a broad range of technology areas including how light is used in medicine, space and communications.
The latest in the series give you the opportunity to meet the researcher, discovering their work and their career paths.
Find us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Episode 1: LiDAR
In this episode we discuss LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging technology. How is LiDAR used in many aspects of everyday life including self-drive vehicles, land mapping, meteorology or looking back in time at how ancient civilizations lived? Find out the answers and much more here!
Hosted by David McGovern. Special thanks to our guests Peter O`Brien and Nick Hogan.
Do you have any questions? Ask us in the question section below!
Release Date: 3rd November 2021
David McGovern
Senior Business Development Manager at IPIC & Tyndall National Institute
David has more than ten years’ experience in researched-focussed organisations. This includes significant industry experience at Intel Ireland and roles in research, R&D management and technology commercialisation in the 3rd Level Sector and more recently at Tyndall National Institute.
Peter O’Brien
Head of Photonics Packaging – IPIC & Tyndall National Institute
Peter is the deputy director of IPIC at Tyndall and Adjunct Professor at the College of Optical Science, University of Arizona. Peter established the advanced photonic packaging group in Tyndall National Institute in 2009.
Nick Hogan
Senior Technical Officer – Archaeology Dept. University College Cork
Nick is an experienced field archaeologist with a range of skills in excavation, land survey and geophysics and is particularly interested in the application of digital technologies to the study of archaeological sites and landscapes.
Special Episode: Quantum Worlds
This special episode celebrates the World Quantum Day, April 14th, and will delve into what Quantum Technologies are, how they will impact our future and the quantum landscape in Ireland.
Hosted by David McGovern with special guests Prof Seamus Davis from UCC, Prof Elena Blokhina from UCD and Dr. Emanuele Pelucchi from IPIC & Tyndall National Institute.
Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Do you have any questions? Ask us in the question section below!
Release Date: 14th April 2022
Seamus Davis
J.G. White Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Cornell University, USA; Professor of Physics, University of Oxford, UK; and Professor of Quantum Physics, University College Cork, Ireland.
He was recently elected to the rank of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), considered among the most distinct honours within the global scientific community. Prof Davis’ has very diverse research interests including he macroscopic quantum physics of emergent quantum matter.
Elena Blokhina
Associate Professor School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, UCD
Prof Blokhina is a Senior member of IEEE and the Past Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Nonlinear Circuits and Systems. In 2018-2021 she was the Deputy Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I Journal. She served as a Visiting Professor in UPMC Sorbonne Universities in 2014, 2017 and 2021. Prof Blokhina is also currently the CSO at equal1.labs. Prof Blokhinas research interests include quantum computing, semiconductor devices, quantum dots, microelectronic systems and multi-physics systems.
Emanuele Pelucchi
Head of Epitaxy and Physics of Nanostructures (EPN) group, IPIC and Tyndall National Institute-UCC.
In January 2007 moved to Tyndall National Institute-UCC, setting up a new research group in the field of III-V epitaxy and semiconductor quantum dots, with a particular effort dedicated to site controlled quantum dots. He is currently holding a number of record performances obtained at Tyndall in MOVPE epitaxy in general and site controlled single quantum dots in particular, all achieved as an independent PI.
Episode 3: Shining a Light on Space Part 1
In this episode we are joined by John Mackey to discuss how light has enabled us to communicate and display images to each other across continents, locate yourself to within a few metres anywhere on earth and to look back in time and see images across the depths of space including black holes which were imaged for the first time in 2019. Find out the answers and much more here!
Hosted by David McGovern. Special thanks to our guest John Mackey.
Do you have any questions? Ask us in the question section below!
Release Date: 4th October 2022
Episode 3: Shining a Light on Space Part 2
In this episode we are joined by Alfredo Carpineti (he/him) to continue our discussion about how light has enabled us to communicate and display images to each other across continents, locate yourself to within a few metres anywhere on earth and to look back in time and see images across the depths of space including black holes which were imaged for the first time in 2019.
Hosted by David McGovern. Special thanks to our guest Alfredo Carpineti.
Do you have any questions? Ask us in the question section below!
Release Date: 10th October 2022
David McGovern
Senior Business Development Manager at IPIC & Tyndall National Institute
David has more than ten years’ experience in researched-focussed organisations. This includes significant industry experience at Intel Ireland and roles in research, R&D management and technology commercialisation in the 3rd Level Sector and more recently at Tyndall National Institute.
John Mackey
John is the CEO and co-founder of Mbryonics.
Mbryonics, a Galway-based SME which designs and manufactures optics and photonics systems for space applications. They are a global leader in satellite optical communications systems – also known as lasercom – which is a laser-based technology that is being used to interconnect and form the data backbone for the emerging “internet of space”. The company is launching a satellite in 2024 to demonstrate its latest lasercom product called StarCom. John founded the company with his siblings Ruth and David in 2014 and has a background in business and economics.
Alfredo Carpineti
Alfredo (he/him) is an astrophysicist and science communicator.
He works as a journalist for IFLScience and he runs a podcast called The Astroholic Explains, where he answers questions about the Universe, where he answers questions about the Universe. You can read more about Alfredo’s exciting work on his website.
Episode 4: Light Saving Lungs
In this episode we discuss how the use of a light is helping doctors to understand how the lungs of premature babies are functioning in way that can be done using a harmless light source, can be continuously so you can keep an eye on this at all times and which can help ultimately bring better outcomes for these babies futures. The technique this is all based on is as in Scattering Media Absorption Spectroscopy (GASMAS) and in this podcast we learn more about this novel technique.
Hosted by David McGovern with special guests Prof Stefan Stefan Anderson-Engels from IPIC & Tyndall National Institute and Hanna Sjöström CEO GPX Medical AB.
Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Do you have any questions? Ask us in the question section below!
Release Date: 20th October 2022
David McGovern
Senior Business Development Manager at IPIC & Tyndall National Institute
David has more than ten years’ experience in researched-focussed organisations. This includes significant industry experience at Intel Ireland and roles in research, R&D management and technology commercialisation in the 3rd Level Sector and more recently at Tyndall National Institute.
Stefan Andersson-Engels
Head of BioPhotonics group, IPIC and Tyndall National Institute-UCC.
Prof. Andersson-Engels hails from Helsinburg Sweden. He received his M.Sc in 1985 and his Ph.D. in 1990 both from Lund. Stefan is an award-winning, world-leading researcher who manages a research group of about 40 members, roughly half or which are postdocs and senior researchers and the other half are postgraduate students. Stefan came to Ireland in 2016 after you were awarded an SFI Professorship and came to IPIC at Tyndall at UCC and now leads a number of international collaborations with universities, clinicians and industry partners including Rockley Photonics and GPX Medical. Stefan has been awarded the SKAPA award, the most prestigious entrepreneurship award in Sweden; as well as the “Lindbomska belöningen” from the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.
Hanna Sjöström
CEO GPX Medical AB and a Board member Alteco Medical AB.
Masters of Business Administration, Technology Management and Marketing in 2005 and an executive MBA in Leadership in 2018. Hanna has worked for some of the leading companies in the world including L`Oreal, Coca-Cola, TePe oral hygiene Global Marketing Director before leaving to become the founder and CEO of GPX Medical develops medical device for improving the care and life quality of our most vulnerable patients – preterm born infant
COMING SOON!
Episode 5: Harnessing Light for Renewable Energy
Release Date: TBC
We want to hear from our community! If you have a question on a previous episode or one of our upcoming episodes please let us know!
This podcast is created by Irish Photonic Integration Centre in partnership with Science Foundation Ireland. Thanks to our partners at Tyndall National Institute and UCC 98.3FM radio production team for their support in making this podcast.
