The born of the Optical Spanish Society: From international integration to national construction (1946-1970)

The Spanish Optical Society was founded in 1968. Its constitution is the culmination of a long process whose foundations emerged in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century and whose immediate predecessor was the creation of the Spanish Committee of Optics (CEO) in 1950. An international institution, the International Commission of Optics (ICO), served as a guide and reference; and a national institution, the Institute of Optics "Daza de Valdes", was the state promoter who led the process from the re-foundation of the Spanish Committee of Optics in 1958. The most singular aspect of this development is that international integration set the pace of national construction. However, contrary to what happened in other branches of Spanish science at that time, the Spanish optical community did not act as a mere periphery but actively shaped the international community of the ICO.