Confession....
When at the end of 2000 we received the invitation to become Student SPIE members we were a little bit hesitating, since we had very limited information about “What SPIE means?” or “What a professional association is?”. Our Chapter was organized in 2001 and in April it was approved by the SPIE Board.
We were happy to receive books donation for our Chapter and invitations to attend conferences in Europe.
Three of us had the opportunity to visit Sankt Petersbourg in October 2003 and meet SPIE Students from Russia.
The most stimulating event was the visit of SPIE president James Bilbro and Executive Director of SPIE Eugene Arthurs in July 2004. A special meeting of the guests with the members of Romania SPIE Student Chapter had been organized. We were very much impressed about the friendship of the meeting and open discussions, advices and encouragements received from the SPIE authorities.
Now, we feel better informed about our opportunities and proud to belong to a professional organization and we can advice our new colleagues to join us.
We are now much more optimistic about our professional future and our mission to promote physics and opportunities of a career in optics and photonics.
Constantin Ungureanu - the 1st elected president of the SPIE Ro Chapter
