FiO 2025 recap

FiO 2025 has come to an end. I’m grateful for the experiences from this past week – it was great to reconnect with fellow Optica Ambassadors and engage with students from the Optica Student Leadership program.

This conference was particularly meaningful as I ran events for the Optica Holography and Diffractive Optics Technical Group for the first time. We organized the student poster competition, with the community award going to Yohan Soares for his excellent work on High-Speed Single-Pixel Optical Imaging Technique.

A highlight was our networking lunch featuring Eileen Otte talk. As Ulrike Fuchs put it: she struck a perfect balance – providing an accessible introduction to structured light for students and non-experts while presenting recent developments that sparked engaging discussions among those familiar with the field. On a personal note, it was very satisfying to realize my student idea: combining quality scientific content with a good meal in a relaxed atmosphere.

I also had the opportunity to present my recent research on applying phase singularities for wavefront sensing, enjoying the afterwards discussion with the structured light community. As always, it was inspiring to hear the latest developments from others in the field.