Light as a Strategic Resource: Introducing the Chair in Optical Sciences and Photonics

This seminar introduces the Chair in Optical Sciences and Photonics (COSP), a frontier research platform established at IAS–UM6P with the mission of advancing optical sciences in service of major scientific and societal transitions. Drawing on the Chair’s scientific scope, spanning nanophotonics, plasmonics, quantum photonics, optical metasurfaces, thin-film photovoltaics, optical sensing, and biomedical optics, Prof. Sekkat will present the strategic vision that anchors COSP within UM6P’s broader research ambitions.

The seminar will outline the Chair’s four areas of application, energy transition, digital and intelligent systems, sustainable agriculture, and biomedical technologies, and discuss how fundamental inquiry in light–matter interactions translates into technologies of real-world consequence. Ongoing research initiatives, including the EU SOLIS Project and tandem solar cell development with INNOVX, will be presented as illustrations of this research-to-impact pathway.

Prof. Sekkat will also address the Chair’s role in building human capital, strengthening international and African scientific networks, and positioning UM6P as a reference institution for photonics research on the continent and beyond.