Sameen Ahmed Khan Honored by Optical Society of America
By DrAzher Majid Siddiqui
Department of Physics
Faculty of Natural Sciences
JamiaMilliaIslamia
New Delhi, India
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Light sciences have provided us numerous instruments such as telescopes to see far away objects and microscopes to see very tiny objects. Light sciences have also impacted our lives through medical imaging, telecommunications and internet. Beam optics and light polarization have stimulated research for centuries. Their understanding and manipulation are the cornerstones of optical technology.
The understanding of light optics requires a variety of mathematical techniques. Consequently, there are attempts to understand light optics using different mathematical machineries. Dr Sameen Ahmed Khan has been single-handedly working on a new formalism of beam optics using matrices and quantum technics. He is assistant professor in the College of Arts and Applied Sciences, Dhofar University, Salalah. This year alone he published five papers describing different facets of his formalism. Amidst strong international competition, two of Dr Sameen’s papers have been chosen as one of the best this year by the influential magazine, Optics & Photonics News (OPN) published by The Optical Society (OSA was founded in 1916 as the Optical Society of America and renamed as Optical Society in 2008). Each year OSA highlights world-wide breakthrough innovations in optics and photonics in its year end December issue of its OPN Magazine. The research is thereby featured in the special edition, Optics in 2016, which carries the summaries of the thirty selected breakthroughs.
Along with outstanding research in mathematical optics, Dr Sameen has a keen interest in science policy and outreach, which is reflected in his over two hundred writings on science popularization. During the United Nations designated 2015 International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies, Dr Sameen published over a dozen articles in English, Urdu and Arabic. His is the only book carrying the title of the international year. He is the Founding Member of the Ibn al HaythamLHiSA International Society (Light: History, Science and Applications, http://www.ibnalhaytham-lhisa.com/). He was also recognized as one of the thirty speakers at the conference held at the UNESCO Headquarters (The Islamic Golden Age of Science for today’s Knowledge-based Society: The Ibn Al-Haytham Example, 14-15 September 2015, Paris, France).
Sameen Ahmed Khan with Science Historian RoshdiRashed. Rashed brought to light the historical discovery that Ibn al-Haytham and his mentor Ibn Sahl knew the law of refraction of light six centuries before the Europeans!
Sameen Ahmed Khan handing over a copy his book titled “International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies” to John Dudley the President of the Steering Committee of the International Year of Light
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