Conference: 10th International Conference on Spectroscopic Ellipsometry

This award supports the participation of students and early career professionals from underrepresented groups in the 10th International Conference on Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (ICSE-10), with the aim to broaden participation, and to develop the future workforce. ICSE-10 will take place in Boulder, Colorado from June 8-15, 2025. The conference will benefit both the advancement of science and national prosperity.

ICSE regularly takes place every three years, and ICSE-10 is the first meeting in the U.S.A. in 15-years. The conference attracts more than 300 experts and non-experts from all over the world to share knowledge and learn about the latest advances and applications of optical techniques which utilize polarized light. These techniques play a key role in electronic device technology, and in transforming the manufacturing landscape driven by the latest advancement in machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Both are areas at the forefront of innovation with an impact on the economic stability of the US and therefore they are important to the whole society. Other fields which will be addressed at the conference include developments of optical instrumentation, and general aspects of chemical, physical, biological material science. ICSE-10 is committed to an inclusive, non-discriminating and collaborative environment for learning and networking.

The conference includes sessions on workforce development and invites active involvement from graduate students and early career professionals. These activities include the selection of speakers for a student-run session and the selection of graduate student award winners. ICSE-10 provides an international venue which supports the training and education of an engineering workforce.

ICSE is a conference series which was founded in 1993 and is held every three years to share new ideas related to material characterization, real-time process analysis, and instrumentation development utilizing the polarization properties of electromagnetic waves in the spectral regions from Terahertz to soft-X-ray wavelengths. Typically, ICSE brings together an international cohort of more than 300 participants including experienced scientists and leaders of the community, as well as many graduate students, Postdocs, and other early career professionals.

The technical program covers all aspects in the fields of ellipsometry and polarimetry, and their applications that use polarization properties of light. The topics range broadly from artificial intelligence, machine learning, biological, chemical, physical, and material sciences to life sciences as well as applications in manufacturing and metrology.

ICSE-10 is committed to the development of a collaborative, inclusive, and internationally conscious workforce, and is seeking opportunities to increase participation of a diverse population especially from undergraduate and graduate students, Postdocs, and other early career professionals. The conference encourages students to be actively involved in the program selection.

They are invited to create their own best-abstract based session, chaired by students and/or early career professionals. Life-time achievement awards will bring remembrance to early pioneers in the field and highlight the importance of historical developments. ICSE-10 dedicates a special session to aspects of workforce development for students and early career professionals.

Experts from leading semiconductor and metrology companies educate conference attendees about workforce related topics as the industry moves into “extreme ultraviolet” device manufacturing utilizing new venues provided by artificial intelligence and machine learning.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.