2015: The Year of Light

The United Nations has designated 2015 the “year of light and light-based technologies.” How’s that for recognition of the value of lighting?

This year, more than 100 organizations in 85 countries will celebrate light, focusing on natural, scientific and cultural themes. Included is a celebration of light-based technologies, from lighting to lasers, and their impact on energy, communications and health. Technology-related goals include 1) improve public understanding of light and lighting, 2) build educational capacity and promote careers, 3) highlight research in the field and 4) promote the importance of lighting technology in sustainable development.

According to the Year of Light website:

“This International Year has been the initiative of a large consortium of scientific bodies together with UNESCO, and will bring together many different stakeholders including scientific societies and unions, educational institutions, technology platforms, non-profit organizations and private sector partners.

“In proclaiming an International Year focusing on the topic of light science and its applications, the United Nations has recognized the importance of raising global awareness about how light-based technologies promote sustainable development and provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health. Light plays a vital role in our daily lives and is an imperative cross-cutting discipline of science in the 21st century. It has revolutionized medicine, opened up international communication via the Internet, and continues to be central to linking cultural, economic and political aspects of the global society.”

Sponsors of the International Year of Light include the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and Philips.

The timing of the International Year of Light is significant given the most recent Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry were related to light. Shuji Nakamura, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano won the Nobel Prize for Physics for their development of the blue LED, which paved the way for white light. Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William E. Moener won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy.

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Craig DiLouie

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