Conference Notes

SPIE Photonics West 2013 (Review)

San Francisco, CA, USA, 2–7 February, 2013

Every year, the first big meeting of the photonics community is the Photonics West conference and exhibition in San Francisco. As last year the attendence reached a record high with 20.737 (+2%), the exhibitions were larger, and there were more papers (over 4500) in the technical program.

Technical papers were presented in four major areas: biomedical optics (BIOS conferences), lasers (LASE), optoelectronics (OPTO), and micro-opto-electro-mechanical and micro-electro-mechanical systems(MOEMS-MEMS). The conference attendance was strong, despite some concern around US government travel funding restrictions.

The first big event at the conference was the BiOS Hot Topics session on Saturday evening with a large crowd and a lot of networking going on in addition to the presentations. This year the topics ranged from OCT to optogenetics. Symposium chair Jim Fujimoto (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) said: ‘We’re at the point now where many of the technologies that are being developed here can be translated to clinical applications and have real-world clinical impacts’.

LASE symposium chair Andreas Tünnermann (Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering and Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena) said he found optimism among conference attendees from science and from industry, despite financial troubles in Europe and elsewhere. ‘People are looking at a bright future; they believe in what they are doing,’ he said. ‘They are here to think about a lot of products, and to bring these products to the market.’

Ever growing exhibition

From Tuesday to Thursday people were rushing into the main Photonics West exhibition to see what 1238 exhibitors had to offer on new products and developments. The BIOS exhibition on the preceding weekend had also grown to 224 exhibitors.

For small companies the presentation at such a large exhibition might seem costly, but several regional clusters or pavilions offered great deals for first time exhibitors. For the eighth time, Germany was represented at the Photonics West with a national pavilion hosting 46 German exhibitors, showing high-tech products made in Germany (Figure 1). It is worth mentioning, that the related networking events, such as the German Evening, offered not only free drinks but excellent opportunities to meet a huge number of national and international partners in a relaxed atmosphere.

Figure 1

Activity at the German Pavilion. Germany was represented at the Photonics West with a national Pavilion hosting 46 German exhibitors (photo: OptecNet Deutschland e.V.).

LASER – World of Photonics (Preview)

Munich, Germany, 13–16 May 2013 (Congress: 12–16 May 2013)

The LASER, as insiders call it, is the world’s largest trade show on photonics technology. It runs on a bi-annual schedule and previously (2011) it attracted 27 490 visitors and 1075 exhibitors. After this year’s growth at Photonics West one may equally expect further growth for the LASER. The event will take place at the Munich Fair Ground (Messegelände), it is entered at the subway station ‘Messe West’

The tradeshow is accompanied by a congress, actually a set of diverse conferences. The congress starts on Sunday in the ICM building adjacent to the tradeshow entrance. The congress requires a separate ticket. Several events of an academic character (such as the application panels) will take place in the exhibition halls and will require no congress admission. Special meetings are usually held in meeting rooms adjacent (above) the halls, correct orientation might be an issue.

The World of Photonics Congress

The congress at the LASER is a collection of conferences from the small 50 people workshop up to a big conference with several thousand attendants. A number of different societies are managing the organization of the various conferences and hence, some topical or temporal overlap may occur. Table 1 shows a list of the major conferences, their organizers and links to the respective program. Please notice that some conferences run on different days. Full details of the congress with links to most conferences can be found at:

Table 1

Conferences at the World of Photonics Congress.

http://www.world-of-photonics.net/en/photonics-congress/structure

CLEO, the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

San Jose, CA, USA, 9–14 June, 2013

Sponsored by the American Physical Society/Division of Laser Science (APS/DLS), the Institute of Electronic Engineers Photonics Society (Photonics Society) and the Optical Society (OSA), CLEO, the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics is probably the most famous scientific conference on the field of photonics. It provides the full range of critical developments in the field, showcasing the most significant milestones from laboratory to marketplace.

This year it will take place again in San Jose (CA, USA), the capital of the Silicon Valley. The technical program features 1800+ presentations and hundreds of sessions and short courses covering fundamental research in electro-optics, innovative developments in laser science, and commercial applications in photonics. Research is presented under these core conferences:

• CLEO: QELS – Fundamental Science

• CLEO: Science & Innovations

• CLEO: Applications & Technology

The session topics range from Advances in Extreme UV Science and Applications to Laser Driven Inertial Fusion Energy. The latter comes not only with a large number of presentations from laser projects all around the world but there is also a must-see event offered: A tour of the National Ignition Facility is arranged for the morning of Wednesday, 12 June 2013. The NIF tour is limited to 200 people and you must be pre-registered to attend. The registration deadline is 15 March 2013.

A full list of the special symposia can be found here: www.cleoconference.org/home/science-and-innovations/special-symposia/

CLEO:EXPO

From 11–13 June the CLEO will host an exhibition featuring 300 participating companies from around the world representing the laser and electro-optics industry. Within the CLEO: Expo there will be a number of interesting presentations in the frame of the Market Focus. Among these events are several panel discussions such as ‘Industrial Laser Outlook and Opportunities’ (Tuesday, 11 June 2013, 10:30 – 12:30) with speakers from Longbow Research, Newport Corporation, DirectPhotonics, and TRUMPF Inc., discussing the latest market trends in industrial laser applications.

Furthermore, CLEO:Expo features a Technology Transfer Program: It provides a forum for entrepreneurs and researchers from start-ups, major universities, businesses and national laboratories to present exciting new technologies which are ready and available for commercialization. The Program will kick off with a Tutorial for those that want to learn more about the licensing process – funding, entrepreneurship, technology transfer and intellectual property. In addition, organizations will feature their license ready technologies at tabletop displays in the exhibit hall.

The next CLEO is scheduled for 8 – 13 June 2014 and it looks as if it will remain in San Jose for the forseeable future.

www.cleoconference.org

114. Annual Meeting of the DGaO

Braunschweig, Germany, 21–25 May, 2013

It has become a tradition that the German Society of Applied Optics DGaO convenes in the week after Pentecost for its annual meeting. This year, the host of the meeting is the Physikalisch Technische Bundesanstalt PTB. PTB is the national metrology institute of Germany providing scientific and technical services. Metrology is the core competence of PTB and accordingly it is the first item on this year’s list of main topics at the meeting:

• Optical precision metrology

• Interferometry

• Aspheres

• Photometry/Radiometry

• Microscopy

Beside the scientific presentations networking will be a major issue of the meeting. There will be the Welcome reception on Tuesday, the annual excursion on Thursday and the festive conference dinner on Friday night which will include the Fraunhofer lecture.

For the first time, DGaO will award prizes the best doctoral thesis and the best master thesis in the field of applied optics.