Lighting the Way for Women in Photonics: Targeted outreach and humanitarian efforts fuel the new initiative

The year 2014 was a big one for women's engineering programs; not only did IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) celebrate its 20th anniversary, but the IEEE Photonics Society, inspired by WIE's decades of progress, unveiled its own Women in Photonics initiative. Officially launched at the IEEE Photonics Society flagship annual conference in October 2014, the program is dedicated to creating and promoting activities that support the participation, engagement, and advancement of women in the photonics and optics community.