By Patricia Daukantas

OSA members: You have until October 31 to nominate a public official for OSA’s annual “Advocate for Optics” recognition program. That means you have less than two days to take action.

Past honorees of this program have come from both of the U.S. major political parties – two Democrats and two Republicans. Two other honorees were from Belgium. So your favorite public official doesn’t have to be American – just someone who has a record of being an enthusiastic supporter of optics and photonics research, and science and technology in general.

The nomination involves sending us an e-mail – no big packages of paperwork needed. For the criteria, list of past winners, evaluation process and the address for submissions, please visit this page on the OSA Web site: http://www.osa.org/news/policyprograms/awardsrecognition/default.aspx.

2009-10 October