IYL 2015 in Poland

Light plays a key role in human’s life. Without light there will be no human life environment. Technologies based on light, called photonics, decide of the development of our civilization. The role of photonics is constantly increasing, especially in such fields as energy, education, agriculture and health. The UN has established the International Year of Light and Light - based Technologies – IYL2015 [1]. The organizers of IYL2015 events are professional organizations, communities, educational organizations, non-profit ones, technological clusters and platforms, but also private sector. The aim is to increase the social consciousness about the role of light and photonics in building of our civilization. This sort of recognition is necessary as a needed component of the development process of the society. Introduction of new technologies, like completely new kind of lighting, new diagnostic and therapeutic methods, new sources of energy, etc., must meet with social acceptance. In the opposite case, isolated development of infrastructure, will meet with obstacles. In Poland, the professional events, technical, trade fairs and outreach ones, are organized in the framework of the IYL2015 by Photonics Society of Poland, Polish Physical Society, Polish Platform of Photonics Technologies, etc. The paper summarizes the issues combined with the organization of the IYL2015 globally and in Poland. Extended version of this paper was published in Polish [2]. The paper is a part of a cycle of articles devoted to analysis of global processes of photonics development. Previous papers concerned initiatives Photonics21 in Europe [3-4], NPI – National Photonics Initiative in USA [5], and development of optical sciences in Poland [6-15].