SPIE-PL Membership

Contents:

Introduction

SPIE Poland Chapter (SPIE-PL), also spelled SPIE Polish Chapter or Polish Chapter of SPIE, like SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, is a nonprofit society dedicated to advancing scientific, engineering, and commercial applications of optical, photonic, imaging, electronic, and optoelectronic technologies. Its members are scientists, researchers, engineers, students, and users interested in the development and reduction to practice of these technologies. SPIE-PL provides the means for communicating new developments and applications information to the engineering, scientific, and user communities through its own and SPIE publications, international and local symposia or conferences, professional courses, workshops, and technical exhibitions.

The main SPIE-PL category of individual membership was created at the time when the Polish Chapter of SPIE was officially established. Its membership dues are in Polish money paid to the Chapter. This category can be divided into three subcategories: regular (R), student (S), and emeritus (E) members. In January of 2001, the total number of SPIE-PL members was as high as 218, including 10 students and sevaral E members. The annual membership dues are 30, 10, and 10 PLN for R, S, and E members, respectively (PLN is an official acronym for New Polish Zloty; at present - 2006 - ca. 3.2 PLN are equivalent to 1 USD).

The "30-dollar" members of the SPIE Polish Chapter have the same benefits and profits as normal member of SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering. The majority of the SPIE benefits are also ascribed to the R, S, and E members. Only they have not SPIE's privileges of voting, eligibility to hold SPIE office and receive the grade of SPIE Fellow.

Among many privileges of the "30-dollar" SPIE-PL members, we can distinguish the following benefits and profits:

• opportunity for professional growth;
• peer recognition, eligibility for election to grade of SPIE Fellow, and access to the program of SPIE awards;
• subscription to oemagazine, SPIE's monthly newspaper;
• association, communication, and networking with colleagues;
• continuing education, participation in and contribution to technical community, career enhancement;
• voting privileges and eligibility to hold SPIE office;
• special member rates on meetings, publications, and courses;
• access to Professional Group Benefits Progrm, including insurance, discount travel, and no-fee credit card.

The majority of the above-listed benefits are also ascribed to the SPIE-PL members whose membership dues are in zlotys. In addition to the SPIE benefits, the Polish Chapter offers its own benefits or profits resulting from the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the SPIE Headquarters and SPIE-PL.

Among SPIE-PL's own benefits there are:

• highly discounted subscription to Optica Applicata (quarterly scientific journal), Opto-Electronics Review (quartely technical journal), and SPIE Polish Chapter Bulletin (bimonthly publication);
• waived or reduced registration fees at SPIE-PL international conferences;
• free of charge access to SPIE-PL library.

On the other hand, SPIE-PL profits produced by the above-mentioned MoU include:

• highly discounted subscription to three SPIE journals: Optical Engineering, Biomedical Optics, and Electronic Imaging
• twenty per year registration fee waived at symposia or conferences organized by SPIE in the USA and other countries;
• realization of individual orders for SPIE books (Proceedings, Milestone, Tutorials, and others.

In Poland there are two ways of scientific/research career: the first of them, the most distinguished way, leads to the title of Professor (Prof.) via scientific degrees of Doctor (Dr) and Habilitatus Doctor (HDr). In Polish nomenclature, the HDr degree is referred to as Doctor habilitowany (Dr hab.). The second way is by reaching successive scientific/research positions (posts), starting from an assistant and then senior assistant, through assistant professor (in Polish nomenclature: adiunkt) and extra-ordinary (associate) professor, up to ordinary (full) professor.

The position (post) of assistant professor can be obtained if at least the scientific degree of doctor (Dr) is gained. On the other hand, the degree of HDr is normally required to achieve the post of extraordinary (associate) professor. The post of ordinary professor is typically reserved for scientists who have reached their scientific title of Professor. This title is given by the President of Poland after a long qualification procedure and acceptance given by the Central Committee for Scientific Title and Scientific Degrees. This is a government institution by the Prime Minister.

The scientific degrees of Doctor and HDr are given by scientific councils of respective institutes or faculties at universities and other high schools, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and also by some R&D institutes belonging to different ministries. The scientific degree of HDr, however, must be verified and accepted by the above-mentioned Central Committee for Scientific Title and Scientific Degrees. On the other hand, the post of extraordinary professor and that of ordinary professor must be accepted (after a qualification process) by the scientific council of a respective institute or high school faculty. The nomination to the post is given by the Minister of National Education or other minister of a ministry the R&D institute or high school belongs to.

In general, there is an important difference in Poland between the scientific title of Professor and the post (position) of professor. Formally, only those scientists who have the title of Professor can use the word "Professor" (Prof.) before their names.

In Poland, a fundamental education at universities and other higher schools is normally brought to an end by achieving the grade of Master of Science (M.Sc.) or that of Master of Science, Engineer at technical universities. In Polish nomenclature, the former is referred to as magister (mgr) and the latter is spelt magister inżynier (mgr inż.).

After the above explanation, given primarily for readers from outside Poland, a table can be displayed , which illustrates the chapter's structure from the point of view of scientific qualifications of the SPIE-PL members. For some camparison purposes, the data were taken not only from the present-day state (January 2001), but also from the 1996 and 1998 records.

Now it will be interesting to show (see table below) the evolution of the number of both individual and corporate sustaining members of the SPIE-PL Chapter starting from its foundation.

Contents ...

Review of Main Scientific/Research and Technical Areas in Which SPIE-PL Members Are Interested

SPIE-PL members are interested not only in optical science and engineering but also in many other areas of applied sciences and technology as shown in the table below. Only one (main) field of activity has been ascribed to each member.

Distribution or numbers of individual members over their main fields of activity (as of January 2001)
Main fields of activity	No. of Individual Members
Applied optics in general, optical materials, design and making of optical elements/systems, construction of optical and optoelectronic instruments, optical metrology, holography, diffractive and GRIN optics	65
Optoelectronics or photonics, semiconductor science and technology, photodetectors, telecommunication, telemetry, and liquid crystal displays	45
Laser physics/technology and applications	16
Optical, optoelectronic and electronic sensors	18
Materials science, including solid state crystals (growth, characterization, applications), and liquid crystals (physics, chemistry, applications)	10
Physics, technology and applications of optical fibers or other lightguides, and fiber optic telecommunication	25
Image processing and optical computing	6
Biomedical optics, ophthalomology, optometry, and applications of lasers in biomedicine and ecology	8
Other than above-specified areas of interest	25

SPIE-PL members are primarily affiliated with technical universities and various R&D institutes. For the foreign readers, it would be interesting that three categories of scientific/research institutes exist in Poland. The most numerous are the institutes within the structure of university faculties. They are rather small organizations (several tens of scientists or researchers, at any rate less than 50). The most prestigious institutes belong to the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS). They concentrate large groups of scientists/researchers being interested in fundamental rather than applied research or engineering. The institutes focused on applied sciences and development are affiliated to different ministries and especially to the Ministry of Economy (this is a big ministry which includes the former Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Commerce). Among many other institutes of this category there is the Institute of Applied Optics, which hosts the SPIE-PL office and library. Table 5 shows numbers (N) of individual members (IM) affiliated with above-mentioned institutes and some other organizations (as of January 2001).

Affiliation of SPIE-PL individual members
Category of employer	No. of Individual Members
Technical universities, including the Military University of Technology with its 35 SPIE-PL members	117
Research and development institutes of the Ministry of Economy	25
Warsaw Univ. (Inst. of Geophys.); M. Curie-Skłodowska Univ., Lublin (Lab. Optical Fiber Technology); Medical Academy of Bydgoszcz (Dept of Biophysics); N.Copernicus Univ.,Toruń; and Higher Pedagogical School in Rzeszów	25
Small privately owned companies	18
Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences	3
Various (industrial, military) government companies	10
Other organizations	20

The table below, supplemented with a map, shows the numbers of chapter's individual members residing in differet towns and regions of Poland in the years 1996, 1998, and 2001.

Distribution of SPIE-PL individual members over Poland
Names of towns and their geographic location	No. of Individual Members by Year
	1996	1998	2001
Warsaw, central region (Mazovia)	93	132	132
Wroclaw, south-west region	16	16	18
Lódź, Central Poland	8	9	9
Lublin, eastern region	7	17	22
Białystok, eastern region	3	4	4
Rzeszów, south-eastern (Little Poland)	3	4	6
Szczecin, north-western region (Pomerania)	3	2	2
Gdańsk, northern region (Pomerania)	2	3	5
Koszalin, northern region (Pomerania)	2	2	2
Opole, south-western region (Lower Silesia)	2	2	2
Poznań, western region (Great-Poland)	2	2	2
Gliwice, Upper Silesia (Katowice Province)	1	1	6
Zabrze, Upper Silesia (Katowice Province)	1	1	1
Skarżysko-Kamienna, Kielce, Saint-Cross Province	1	1	1
Kielce, region of Saint-Cross Mountains	0	1	1
Bydgoszcz, northern region	0	1	3
Toruń, northern region	0	0	2

We can see that Polish optics is primarily concentrated in Warsaw, especially in its University of Technology (about 50 SPIE-PL members), Military University of Technlogy (35 members) and Institute of Applied Optics (13 members). The second place can be ascribed to Lublin and its M. Curie-Sklodowska University (Lab. of Optical Fiber Technology), and Technical University. The same place is occupied by Wroclaw and its Technicl University. The next places belong to the Technical Universities in Lodź, Gliwice, Rzeszów, Gdańsk, Białystok, and others. But these towns, especially Poznań and Szczecin with their Universities and Technical Universities are unsufficietly reprsented in the above table.

There are, however, also strong groups of optical scientists, researchers, and engineers in other places not specified here. An example is Kraków (Cracow), the former capital of Poland, where one of the oldest universities in Europe, the Jagiellonian University, exists. Moreover, two big technical higher schools are also in Krakow: Academy of Metallurgy and Mining, and Technical University, where optical engineering is both created and largely exploited. There is also industrial metalurgy in Cracow.

To illustrate more clearly the distribution of SPIE-PL members over Poland, the above table is supplemented with a map (see the below diagram). The map shows those regions and towns of Poland where SPIE-PL members reside. They, i.e., regions, are displayed as clear (white) areas. The numbers of SPIE-PL members inserted in these areas are taken from the record of January 2001.

Conclusion

The above map shows an interesting situation: two towns, the bigest ones in Poland, Warszawa (Warsaw) and Lódź, represented by two small non-hatched areas, are surrounded by a horseshoe-shaped clear areas with Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Toruń, Poznań, Wrocław, Opole, Katowice, Kielce, Rzeszów, Lublin, and Białystok. What means such a horseshoe configuration for the Polish Chapter of SPIE? - Dictionary of Proverbs in Eight Languages, authored by Dobrosława and Andrzej Świerczyński and published by PWN (Scientific Publisher), Warszawa 1998, suggests that "For want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost".

Maksymilian Pluta
SPIE-PL President