Sample contest with EPIC logo
2003
Thomas Pearsall creates the European Photonics Industry Consortium and presents his idea of EPIC to Dr. Henri Rajbenbach of the Electronics & Communications unit of the European Commission. The response of the European Commission is positive, and to help ensure a strong impact, it attaches the EPIC proposal as an additional work package to the existing OPTIMIST program.
2004
In the first two years of operations, EPIC organises European-wide workshops on LEDs for Automotive Lighting, Photonic Components for Telecommunications, Organic LEDs for Displays & Lighting, and Laser-assisted Manufacturing. Today EPIC is arranging between 80-90 different events per year in various topics important to its members.
2004
EPIC initiates the photonics technology platform Photonics 21. When it was inaugurated in 2005, EPIC members populated the Photonics 21 executive board. Berndt Schulte of Aixtron and Paul Lagasse of University of Ghent were exec. VPs, Peter Stormberg of Philips headed LED lighting, Jean-François Coutris of Safran headed sensors and Girogio Anania of Oclaro headed optical communications.
2006
EPIC starts out with 52 company members.
Image: Board of Directors during the AGM in Strasbourg, 2006.
2012
For a year, Tom and Carlos work together to ensure a successful transition. Following Tom’s retirement, Carlos was appointed Director General of EPIC.
2013
Originally this award was called “The Phoenix Award” and was first given to Nick Martin from AFE Optics during the EPIC AGM in Brussels, Belgium 2013. In the picture we can see as well Drew Nelson, EPIC board President at the time.
2014
The “Day of Photonics” commemorates that on 21 October 2014, the General Conference of Weights and Measures adopted the value of 299,792.458 km/s as the speed of light. Image: Modulight Family Day, Tampere, Finland.
2015
EPIC reaches more 200 members across 28 countries and organises 16 workshop and networking events. Image: EPIC Meeting on Freeform Optics at Delta Optical Thin Films, Hørsholm, Denmark, 2015.
2018
EPIC launches the “Jobs in Photonics” website where members can advertise their open positions for free. Today the website included more than 6000 photonics jobs.
Image: EPIC Job wall at ECOC 2022, Basel, Switzerland.
2018
In order to stimulate networking, building relations and friendships doing something fun EPIC started to arrange its member runs. Image: EPIC Executive 5 Miles Run 2020 in San Francisco, USA.
2018
EPIC celebrates its 15th anniversary by reaching 300 members and organising Technology Meetings on hot topics, like the one hosted at Yelo about Testing of Optoelectronics, Belfast, UK.
2019
During 2019 another member milestone was reached when the number reached 500.
Image: World Photonics Technology Summit in Berlin, Germany.
2020
The EPIC Online Webinars which started to run during early 2020 quickly became an important way for members to get the latest information about trending topics. Check the full list on our Youtube Channel.
2020
During the Covid-19 pandemic EPIC had to adapt to a different way of networking. So, on 24 June 2020, lasting for 24 hours EPIC arranged “Photonics World Tour” featuring 72 speakers from 35 countries across 13 time zones!
2022
EPIC is fully owned by its members and is managed by its excellent team of Board of Directors. Today the bord consists of 7 directors from member companies. Image: AGM in Vilnius, Lithuania, 2022.
2023
EPIC team consists of 10 people based all around Europe with vast knowledge within their fields. They are highly skilled professionals dedicated to helping the over 800 EPIC members drive the photonics revolution!
2023
EPIC members are warmly invited to join the EPIC 20th Anniversary Celebration. The event is conveniently taking place at Messe Munich the day prior to LASER World of PHOTONICS. Check here for more details
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