The Institute of Photonics celebrated its 30^th Anniversary with a dedicated symposium on Wednesday 30^th September, as part of two days of photonics events held at the University of Strathclyde’s Technology and Innovation Centre. We were pleased to welcome over 100 guests, including past and present supporters, senior officers, staff and students to join this celebration. It was our pleasure to acknowledge the crucial support and contributions of our founders, advisers, sponsors, collaborators and research leaders, which have enabled the sustained and impactful operation of the Institute over these three decades, resulting - among many other marks of recognition - in the recent (2023) award of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize to the University of Strathclyde.

The main aim of the meeting, however, was to highlight the Institute’s current research themes and the visions of its present generation of research leaders which are carrying us into the future. After a welcome by our Director Michael Strain and the Dean of Science, and a brief introductory talk by Professor Martin Dawson to set the scene, short technical presentations illustrating these visions were given by Professors Keith Mathieson (on neurophotonics), Jennifer Hastie (on lasers for quantum technology), Michael Strain (on integrated optics) and Antonio Hurtado (on neuromorphic photonics). This was followed by a keynote presentation by longtime colleague and collaborator Professor Mircea Guina of Tampere University, who reviewed his connections to Strathclyde and gave an outstanding international perspective on key themes and challenges in semiconductor optoelectronics. The session closed with kind words and reflections on the Institute given by Strathclyde’s Principal Emeritus, Professor Sir Jim McDonald, who has been a very strong supporter over the years.

We were grateful to link our celebration to an excellent afternoon session which was led by the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics – itself now approaching 15 years of operation - as the first of their planned series of annual research symposia. The day ended with a joint dinner where we were also joined by members of the UK’s Photonics Leadership Group and other key supporters. The Institute’s leadership team particularly wish to acknowledge the support of Simon Andrews of Fraunhofer UK, who did so much to help in the organisation of these events.

Here’s to the 40^th Anniversary of the Institute!