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Original Message

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From: "John Dudley, EPS President"
To: "Yatskiv"
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2014 1:06 PM
Subject: Let's plan activities in Ukraine to celebrate IYL2015 !


Dear Dr Yaroslav S. Yatskiv,

The purpose of this message and the attachments is to ask you to begin
national planning of activities in Ukraine to celebrate the International
Year of Light and Light-based Technologies next year, 2015. You may have
already received an earlier message of this sort, but we are sending these
messages again to all countries of the world in order to ensure that there
is global awareness of the International Year.

As you may already know, the United Nations declared that the year 2015 will
be the International Year of Light and Light-based technologies (IYL2015) on
the 20 December 2013, and a number of press releases have been issued that
you can read at the following links:

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www.eps.org/light2015

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optics.org/news/4/12/32

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spie.org/x105138.xml

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goo.gl/8BggjX

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goo.gl/9MLArb



It is essential to realize that the United Nations declares only a very
small number of International Years, and it does so to raise international
awareness of issues that both resonate with the public and which are at the
same time of critical importance for the future. The purpose of the
International Year of Light is to promote the many ways that Light impacts
on the lives of all of us.

There is a great deal of enthusiasm internationally for this project, and we
are currently working with UNESCO to define a number of high-profile
activities that will be coordinated and run internationally.

Of course, whilst these global actions will have broad reach and impact, the
real strength of the International Year of Light 2015 will be the local and
regional outreach activities that take place in each country, organized by
you, for and in collaboration with your community in Ukraine.

So we would like to provide you with a small selection of additional
background and some material that may help your national organization.

Firstly, it is essential to realize that while "small scale events amongst
ourselves" will be one part of the IYL2015, if this is all we do, we will
have missed the chance to engage with a completely new audience, and to
educate upwards towards politicians as well as outwards towards the public.
We often complain that our science is not sufficiently supported or
appreciated, and we now have a once-only opportunity to raise awareness of
the field among policy makers and R&D strategists. It is the possibility to
speak with policy makers and government that motivates the formation of a
national body to coordinate actions, so that the optics community can speak
with one voice.

We really must stress to other physicists and partners that we will have
only one chance at this – there will not be another International Year
around the themes of light and photonics. We absolutely have to make the
most of 2015, and this will require real commitment from us all.


Concerning the attachments:

1. The Prospectus describes the aims and objectives in science, technology,
art and culture (available here:

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www.eps.org/light2015)
2. I attach one long Presentation that you can use to promote IYL2015 in
your institution. The shorter one (avalaible here:

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www.eps.org/light2015) is suitable for a 5-10 minute announcement as
part of another forum; the longer one is suitable for a 45-60 minute
discussion and brainstorming session (this works especially well with
students who are universally enthusiastic about this idea in my experience.)
You can request the editable powerpoints in case you wish to adapt these for
your own purposes as well.
3. Many public and private-sector partners have contacted us to ask if
there are partnership and sponsorship opportunities. Indeed there are, and
sponsorship of an International Year on such an attractive theme will ensure
a level of global visibility that is essentially impossible to obtain in any
other way. As an example, the International Year of Astronomy in 2009
reached over 800 million people from more than 140 countries. We will need
to work with the private sector, and please forward to us any national
enquiries you may receive in this regard.
4. I also attach the resolution itself.

I am not sure to what degree you will be able to operate under a unique
national umbrella, but experience shows that it is an excellent idea to try
to establish some degree of national coordination to allow exchange between
different sectors of the science community concerned with light and its
applications. I would strongly recommend that an initial conference call
is planned as early as possible in 2014 between interested parties. The end
of March 2014 would be ideal to have the nucleus of a National Committee in
place.

There is no unique composition for a National Committee as it will vary from
country to country; but it will of course be expected to bring together
natural partners from national academies, national physical or optical
societies, strong university departments or research institutes,
astronomical observatories, museums, student chapters in optics, as well as
official representatives from bodies such as ICO, CIE, ICSU, TWAS etc. In
some cases where it is possible to make efficient contact with the UNESCO
National Commissions, of course this is a very important step.

It is not essential that all partners are identified by March 2014, as it
should be easy to bring in new partners as planning gains momentum. The
main thing for early 2014 is to make a start to develop effective channels
of communication between different countries and the IYL2015 secretariat.

I am sorry for the length of this email, but there is a lot to do, and we
need to have all the essential elements in place before Summer 2014. By
April 2014 there will be a website in place with more resources that will
help in your planning, but you should begin to organize nationally and
contact the most relevant national partners immediately.

Please feel free to forward this email as is to other potential partners, or
edit and adapt as you wish.

Please also ensure you follow the e-EPS newsletter for additional
information
[

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www.epsnews.eu/ and

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www.epsnews.eu/subscribe/ ]

Best regards

John Dudley



John Dudley
Steering Committee Chair
International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies 2015
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Joe Niemela
Global Coordinator
International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies 2015
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IYL2015 Global Secretariat
ICTP, UNESCO Category I Centre
Strada Costiera
Trieste, Italy

John Dudley - Personal Institutional Address
Institut FEMTO CNRS UMR 6174
16 Route de Gray
25030 Besançon cedex
FRANCE
Phone: +33 (0)3 81 66 64 94
Fax : +33 (0)3 81 66 64 23

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test.mao.kiev.ua/images/postbyemail/LogoIYLcombined_small.jpg

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test.mao.kiev.ua/images/postbyemail/IYL2015_documents.zip