Optics-based neurotechnology is focus of new OSA topical meeting

Aug. 7, 2014

The Optical Society has created a new topical meeting, Optics and the Brain, which will take place in conjunction with the OSA Optics in the Life Sciences Congress in Vancouver, BC, Canada, April 12-16, 2015.

Conard Holton

The Optical Society (OSA; Washington, D.C.) has created a new topical meeting, Optics and the Brain, which will take place in conjunction with the OSA Optics in the Life Sciences Congress in Vancouver, BC, Canada, April 12-16, 2015. The event will serve as a forum for discussing existing and emerging techniques and future directions for shedding new light on the healthy and diseased brain.

Since it was first announced in 2013, the OSA has been finding ways to suppport President Obama’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, which is designed to help find new ways to treat, cure, and possibly prevent brain disorders and diseases. For information on OSA’s efforts in supporting the BRAIN Initiative, visit: www.osa.org/braininitiative.

General Co-Chair of the new meeting, Elizabeth Hillman of Columbia University, says “The research community has already made great progress in discovering new ways to probe the brain, but it is critical that new forums are established where developers and users of technologies can bring their work together, form new collaborations, and leverage each other’s strengths. We hope that this meeting will provide a new home for this burgeoning area of research, ensuring that progress can be made even faster.”

Optics and the Brain was formed as a result of a successful OSA incubator meeting on Spatially Precise Optogenetics at Depth held in 2013. The meeting will feature sessions on:

- Functional brain microscopy techniques

- Optogenetics and optical modulation tools and techniques

- Novel contrast and genetic approaches for brain imaging and modulation

- Optics in the human brain

- Structural and multiscale brain imaging

- Brain macroscopy and hybrid techniques

For more information, click here to visit the meeting website.

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.