Photonics West

Photonics West, one of the largest optics conferences on the planet, happens in San Francisco every year. Correspondingly I get to visit my sister's family, who lives in Berkeley, each February - this year was no exception:

This year was particularly special as my niece Phryne was born last November and this was my first chance to see her! So we took the rare opportunity to take some family pictures (though unfortunately without Juri, who was travelling this week - poor timing!):

 After San Francisco / Berkeley I had to travel to Washington DC to attend the technical program committee meeting of CLEO (yet another optics conference). As our subcommittee finished early, I had some time to walk along the National Mall, which I hadn't done since 1996!