July 2024

In July of 2024 trainees from across IMOD and our partner institutions came together to participate in the third edition of our Optoelectronic Synthesis, Spectroscopy, and Systems Summer Course, or OMS^3.

The 2024 OMS^3 course included twenty-eight participants from across eighteen IMOD groups, located at ten IMOD institutions, and our partners at UC Merced, Norfolk State, and Fort Lewis College. Hosted at the University of Pennsylvania (previous years have been hosted at the University of Washington), the cohort engaged in a combination of hands-on lab experiences and soft-skills training sessions. As the in-person ‘capstone’ to IMOD’s annual Professional Development programming, the goals of the OMS^3 course are to provide more insight for its members into what their colleagues do as part of their research work. By the end of a course a theorist has synthesized some colloidal quantum dots and built a device. An experimentalist has had the chance to do heterointegration and run some calculations. The cohort builds a shared vocabulary and understanding, one that will streamline and strengthen their future collaborations.

The OMS^3 cohort was split into teams and completed four lab-based sessions, including atomistic synthesis, heterointegration, device characterization, and theoretical modeling. Training sessions complemented the monthly virtual sessions and includes topics such as science communication, grant writing, CV development, panels on IP and journal editing. We also worked with our partners at the Universal Display Corporation to offer a tour of their facilities in New Jersey, including discussions with industrial scientists on their career paths and the opportunities for working in industry.