The Optoelectronics Materials Synthesis, Spectroscopy and Systems (OMS^3) course is a signature integrative activity for IMOD.

This one-week long course, which was held at the University of Washington Seattle campus, combined lab technique training relevant to the three IMOD research thrusts and a comprehensive set of professional development workshops designed to increase the ability of the attendees to engage in team science and integrative activities promoted by the Center.

With an interdisciplinary team such as IMOD, it is vital for researchers to be able to understand and ‘speak’ each other’s scientific languages, and develop a common scientific vocabulary. This opportunity for researchers to learn each other’s techniques and gain knowledge about the procedures involved will not only improve the fluency across the Center community, it will also provide valuable interdisciplinary training and understanding for the participants.

The 2023 cohort, which was the second year that the course was held, built upon the sucesses and feedback from year one. This year we included a new theory lab by the Rappe group, panels on science and research identity and structured time for networking and research discussions.