The Lafayette Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s campus in Metz, France, was officially incorporated on April 2 in a ceremony drawing local French and Georgia Tech officials who have overseen the campus' growth from its first shaky steps into an internationally acclaimed program.

The incorporation follows the signing in Atlanta of a letter of intent in November 2010 to establish the institute, a $37 million facility that is to facilitate the commercialization of innovations in optoelectronics.

This  branch of physics deals with the interactions between light and ...