INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LIGHT AND LIGHT-BASED TECHNOLOGIES

By decision of the General Assembly of the United Nations, 2015 has been proclaimed “International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies”. Advances in the science and technology of light, from everyday applications in lighting and energy to laser devices, digital sensors and fibre optics, are vital for medicine, information and communications, agriculture, astronomy, archaeology, art and culture, as well as many other aspects of human life. 2015 coincides with the anniversaries of a series of important milestones in the history of the science of light, including the electromagnetic theory of light propagation proposed by Maxwell in 1865 and Einstein’s theory of the photoelectric effect in 1905.