August 15, 2026
New COPS PhD student – Kasi Promod Sivan
Kasi has joined as a New PhD student at COPS. He will be working under the AWAVE (Advanced Wave Engineering for Sustainable Optical Applications) project headed by Prof. Willem Vos. He completed his Master’s Degree from IISER-Thiruvananthapuram, and has previously done his internships at The University of Würzburg and IIT Madras.  
Julius Muschaweck SPIE Fellow
August 13, 2026
Julius Muschaweck appointed SPIE Fellow
Our fellow COPS Julius Muschaweck has just been elected as a Fellow of SPIE! To quote from the SPIE web site: SPIE Fellows represent the highest level of professional recognition in optics and photonics. This distinction honors individuals whose exceptional technical achievements and leadership have made a significant impact on the field and the broader […]
June 17, 2026
Recap of COPS at WCM
From May 4th to 8th, two COPSes landed in Cargèse, Corsica for the Waves in Complex Media 2026 summer school organized by the Institut Langevin, directed by Mathias Fink and organized by Fabrice Lemoult, Romain Pierrat and Sébastien Popoff. Two posters were presented, and many discussions were had. The next full COPS sighting is TBA!
January 8, 2026
Momentum-resolved reflectivity of 2D photonic crystals (new Opt. Expr. paper)
Two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals offer strong control over the propagation of light through their photonic bands. Theoretical methods to compute the band structure in 2D are well-established and fast because 2D photonic crystals are homogeneous in the third dimension. Experimental verification is scarce, however, especially in the near-infrared (NIR) range including telecom ranges. The reason is […]
January 8, 2026
COPS remembers Bart van Tiggelen
Last December, we heard the incredibly sad news of the sudden passing of our great friend Bart van Tiggelen (from LPMMC, Grenoble). Bart was a great scientist, an outstanding theoretical physicist (on light scattering, Anderson localization,  wavefront shaping, imaging, etc. etc. etc.) always a keen eye on experiments, he’d happily join us in the lab to […]
November 14, 2025
Recap of COPS impact at PECS-XIV in Glasgow
From 9 until 12 November, COPS took to the streets of Glasgow to join the 14th version of the legendary Symposia on “Photonic and Electromagnetic Crystal Structures” (PECS-XIV, https://pecs-xiv.york.ac.uk/) that were originally founded by Eli Yablonovitch and Thomas Krauss (both of course present in good moods!) It was a great pleasure to see many old […]
October 24, 2025
How to make light flat and send it backwards? Stick it on a 3D photonic band gap!
An intriguing kind of light control is the opportunity to have photons propagate preferentially in a thin quasi-two-dimensional (2D) sheet in space, where propagation in the third dimension is exponentially attenuated or otherwise somehow impeded. Such peculiar “flattened” light propagation is well known on a single interface between a metal (with negative ɛ′m < 0) […]
October 8, 2025
Timon Vreman successfully defended his PhD thesis
On the 23rd of September 2025, COPS PhD candidate Timon Vreman successfully defended his PhD thesis titled “Controlling the Reflection and Emission of Light via Photonic Crystals and Quasicrystals” under the supervision and co-supervision of prof. dr. Willem Vos and prof. dr. Ad Lagendijk, respectively, and obtained the doctoral degree. The doctoral committee consisted of […]
October 3, 2025
COPS funding updates! PEREGRIN and AHEAD
Exciting times for successful funding at COPS. This summer has given the announcement that two new programs will be running. The first of which is PEREGRIN: Performance Extremized Freeform-Gradient Index Optics, headed by Dr Koondanibha Mitra of Eindhoven University. This program will explore how the so called F-GRIN lenses could help slim down optics and […]
September 12, 2025
COPS alumnus Rajesh Nair appointed full professor!
This summer, we heard the wonderful news that dr. Rajesh Nair, who was a postdoc at COPS (where he published some illustrious papers, see e.g. sub-Bragg PRL), has been appointed as full professor at the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Ropar in Rupnagar (Punjab, India). Hooray! Lots of cheers to newly minted professor Nair! As […]
September 11, 2025
Timon Vreman to Defend PhD 23 Sep!
Save the date! Timon Vreman is due to defend his PhD on the 23rd of September in Waaier 4 at 2:30. Find the invite here. The live stream can be found here: https://utwente.yuja.com/LiveStream/I/90/1575631623
September 1, 2025
Recap of COPS at EOSAM
COPS had a very good and fruitful time at EOSAM in Delft. With 3 talks, 5 posters and an epic full day chairing session from Willem. Missed us at EOSAM? Next planned outing is PECS-XIV in Glasgow, 9-12 Nov. We hope to see you there!