The 9th International Meeting on Light and Color in Nature

Posted by Joseph Shaw, Montana State University

The 9^th International Meeting on Light and Color in Nature was held at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont., from June 25-29, 2007. Topics of the presentations included rainbows, fogbows, halos, auroras, sky colors, optical displays visible in algal films on water and more. Participants at the 2007 meeting came from all over the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Finland and Denmark. We hope that future meetings will draw participation from even more countries around the world.
 
This is a truly unique meeting that focuses on optical phenomena that are observable with the naked eye in the world around us. The meetings began in 1978 and have taken place approximately every three years since. There are no parallel sessions and all participants attend every talk. Significant scientific contributions are made at each meeting, and the results are published in a feature issue of an OSA journal following the conference. For example, in recent years the “Light and Color in the Open Air” feature issues of Applied Optics have been some of the most popular single issues.
 
The 2007 meeting included a group tour of Yellowstone National Park, where we enjoyed viewing the wonderful and varied colors of the thermal features, geology, and other natural aspects of the park. This photo is of the group at the Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone Park.