Recently, the idea of judiciously incorporating both optical gain and loss was suggested as a means to control the flow of light. This proposition made use of some newly developed notions based on parity-time (PT) symmetry that were initially conceived within the framework of quantum-field theories. Since then, parity-time (PT) symmetry has emerged as a new powerful paradigm in optics. In this talk, we provide an overview of recent developments in this newly emerging field. The use of other type symmetries like supersymmetry (SUSY) in photonics will be also discussed.

Demetrios Christodoulides is the Cobb Family Endowed Chair and Pegasus Professor of Optics at CREOL-the College of Optics and Photonics of the University of Central Florida. He received his Ph.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1986 and he subsequently joined Bellcore as a post- doctoral fellow at Murray Hill. Between 1988 and 2002 he was with the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Lehigh University. His research interests include linear and nonlinear optical beam interactions, synthetic optical materials, optical solitons, and quantum electronics. He has authored and co-authored more than 300 papers. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America and the American Physical Society. In 2011 he received the R.W. Wood Prize of OSA.