By Patricia Daukantas

Light is a visual phenomenon, and the scientists and engineers who study it work long hours … but when it comes time for relaxation, some of them really rock out in a totally different medium: music.

Fortunately for us CLEO attendees, these singers and players showed off their gifts last night at a special LaserFest concert called “Lasers Rock!” We heard rappers and rockers, jazz and blues on the stage of the San Jose Civic Auditorium.

The idea for this concert came from CLEO co-chair Claire Gmachl of Princeton University, according to emcee Sir Peter Knight (OSA 2004 President). He said the acts reflect the Society’s diversity in age and musical taste.

First up were the young but professional duo Phat Photonics, who rapped about DNA, sang the blues about global warming, and performed a laser-rock song they wrote for the occasion.

Phat Photonics consists of Dan Gareau, of the Oregon Health and Sciences University, and Martin Zarzar, who also plays in a band called Pink Martini. When not rapping and rocking, Gareau studies confocal microscopy for non-invasive detection of melanoma. The duo will record their three tunes for their upcoming album, “Science Rock.”

Next came jazz guitarist Yoshiaki Nakajima, who, when not noodling on the strings searches for the perfect fiber frequency comb at Fukui University in Japan. I’m no musical expert, but I’d say his influences include Pat Metheny and the Dave Matthews Band, and his third piece was pure tone poetry.

According to Knight, Eric Hansotte plays in bars around Silicon Valley to support his day job in optical engineering. Wielding his acoustic guitar like a pro, Hansotte played several folk-rock songs, including a pean to women with brains (“I like a girl who will drool over Fleming’s left-hand rule….”).

It took a few minutes for the stage hands to set up for the next act, so I grabbed a beer at the bar in the lobby. I noticed the gallery of portraits of some mighty famous entertainers who have graced the stage of the Civic Auditorium: Dylan, Stones, Who, Santana, Sinatra. But our optical researchers didn’t appear intimidated by the challenge of following in their footsteps.

When I got back into the hall, Hansotte and OSA’s immediate Past President, Tom Baer, had joined the Free Lunch Band on stage for a jam. Then Hansotte and Baer left the stage and the band—which hails from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—ripped through several covers of popular rock songs. I didn‘t catch their individual names, but they proved that a lab that can make really big lasers can also give off a really big wall of sound.

After that smokin’ hot set, Brian Kolner of the University of California at Davis cooled things down a few degrees with his brand of brilliant folk-rock on his 12-string acoustic guitar.

Finally, Bob Fisher and Steven Block took the stage for an excellent country-bluegrass set on various stringed instruments. Fisher is one of the program co-chairs of this year’s CLEO, and Block has to be back at the Civic Auditorium early this morning to deliver his CLEO plenary address, “Single-Molecule Biophysics with Optical Tweezers.”

To wrap up the night, Baer came back out on stage with his harmonicas—“First Harmonic” and “Second Harmonic”—and joined his colleagues for a sweet rendition of “Sweet Georgia Brown.” Sweet indeed!

2010-05 May, CLEO/QELS, Lasers, Lasers, CLEO cleo, cleo10, lasers, laserfest, lasersrock, cleo/qels, music, science rock