Women in Photonics Benelux 2023

It is increasingly recognized that diversity is critical for knowledge and innovation, both in industry and academia. Photonics is one of the key emerging technologies that can become the technology of the 21st century. 

Women represent far less than 10% of the workforce in photonics in most countries in Northern Europe, including the Netherlands. This figure drops even lower when looking at leadership positions.

The Mini Symposium Women in Photonics Benelux aims to bring professionals and academia together to support each other.

This year the event happened  on 22 May, 2023 at Utrecht University,
Marinus Ruppertgebouw, Leuvenlaan 21.

Meet the talkers

Itır Bakış Doğru Yüksel is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Utrecht University in the Physics Department, Nanophotonics group. She received her Ph.D. at Koç University in İstanbul researching biolasers. Now she investigates Scattering based Imaging Systems.

İmran Akça Avcı is an Assistant Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam at Physics and Astronomy, the Biophotonics and Medical Imaging Department. After receiving her Ph.D. at Twente University, she worked at Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral researcher on Optical Coherence Tomography. In addition to being a guest researcher at AMOLF, she also founded a company named Rapid Photonics. Recently, she received VENI and Marie Curie Individual Fellowships. Her research mostly focuses on Integrated Optics.

Program, from 12:30 – 17:00:

  • Registration and Lunch
  • Welcome – Silvania Pereira (TU Delft)
  • First Speaker – Itır Bakış Doğru – Postdoctoral Researcher at Utrecht University – “Extracting information from biomaterials by scattering”
  • Break
  • Panel Discussion – Silvania Pereira (Moderator)
    Topic 1: The importance of going abroad for a career in Photonics
  • Break
  • Second Speaker – Imran Akça – Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, VU University Amsterdam – “A long journey of small photonic circuits”
  • Break
  • Panel Discussion – Silvania Pereira (Moderator)
    Topic 2: Reaching the top of your career
  • Networking (drinks and bites)

Check the Event