From Jan. 21 to 26 in San Jose, CA, Photonics West 2006 will offer nearly 2690 conference papers—more than ever before—in its four international symposia: BiOS 2006, emphasizing new developments in biomedical optics; OPTO 2006, showcasing integrated optoelectronic devices; LASE 2006, highlighting lasers and applications in science and technology; and micro and nanofabrication advances in MOEMS-MEMS 2006. The exhibit floor will be open from Jan. 24 to 26, with almost 1000 exhibitors expected-compared to approximately 800 last year.
These figures are significant, considering that the number of technical papers in just these four symposia are nearly equivalent to the total number of papers in 2002 when the conference included a fifth symposium on Electronic Imaging, which has since become a stand-alone meeting. The growing technical program and widespread industry participation in the exhibits is further reflected in a remarkable 200 new products that will be announced at Photonics West.
To get energized for the week, show sponsor SPIE—The International Society for Optical Engineering (Bellingham, WA)—invites all conference attendees to the casual Welcome Reception in the Imperial Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel on Monday evening from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
BiOS 2006
This year’s BiOS symposium boasts a record 1139 papers on biomedical imaging, endoscopic microscopy, biophotonics, low-light therapy, and single-molecule detection. Technical conference sessions and a special Biomedical Optics Exhibition—displaying the technologies of more than 110 exhibitors—take place on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 21 and 22 (with an overflow conference on biophotonics in veterinary medicine on Monday).
On Saturday from 7 to 9:30 p.m., the BiOS hot-topics session will feature eight presentations. Among them, Daniel Farkas from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles, CA) will discuss optical imaging methodologies that allow clinically relevant in vivo imaging without using contrast agents (see Fig. 1). In addition, Michael R. Hamblin of Harvard Medical School will present “Low-Level Light Therapy: Progress and Possibilities,” highlighting the newest developments in phototherapy.
Conference registrants can also attend either the Technical Group Meeting for the International Biomedical Optics Society (IBOS) or Global Homeland Security, both on Tuesday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The former provides insight into how IBOS facilitates communication between physicians using optics in medicine and the scientists providing the foundation for advances in this field, while the latter encourages attendees to join the group to maximize participation in providing security through photonics. Also free to all attendees is the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; Boulder, CO) Workshop on Biophotonic Tools for Cell and Tissue Diagnostics from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday.
MOEMS-MEMS 2006
Monday morning’s MOEMS-MEMS plenary speakers will address the market and future of microtechnologies, with presentations from George M. Whitesides of Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) on “Fluidic Optics,” and Hans Zappe, professor of Micro-optics at the University of Freiburg (Freiburg, Germany) on “Tunable Micro-optics.” In addition, Marc Madou, chancellor professor at the University of California at Irvine (Irvine, CA), discusses the likelihood that biomimetic manufacturing methodologies will have a major impact on nanotechnology, meaning that genetically engineered proteins and nucleic acids with machined structures could create a totally new class of sensors and actuators.
Photonics West is growing its nanotechnology content each year. In 2006, there will be 25 supporting short courses and over 250 papers across all four international symposia covering such topics as nanomanipulation with light, quantum dots and particles, ultrafast phenomena in nanostructured materials, and photonics of nanoscale materials.
OPTO 2006
The Tuesday morning OPTO plenary will highlight the growing interest in silicon photonics, with presentations on the subject by Bahram Jalali, professor of electrical engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA; Los Angeles, CA; see Fig. 2), and Mario Paniccia, director of the Photonic Technology Lab at Intel (Santa Clara, CA; see Fig. 3).
Silicon Photonics is one of three new conferences added to the OPTO symposium this year, the other two focusing on zinc oxide and gallium nitride materials and devices.
LASE 2006
In the Wednesday morning LASE plenary, SPIE and LASE organizers will honor the recipients of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for their contributions to optics. One of the recipients, Theodor W. Hänsch of the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik (Garching, Germany) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Munich, Germany), will present his work on laser-based spectroscopy on Tuesday morning in paper 6102-17. Additional plenary presentations include “Taking Technology to the Marketplace,” in which Aram Mooradian, founder and CTO of Novalux (Sunnyvale, CA), discusses how its laser technology is addressing the market for specialty lighting.
This year’s LASE program has the largest numbers of papers to be presented ever-more than 475. “Photonics West is recognized by both technical and business people as the number-one photonics industry event,” said Eugene Arthurs, executive director of SPIE. “Some of the fastest growing areas include fiber lasers, solid-state lasers, and microlasers. If you want to know where technology is moving, you have to be at Photonics West.”
A panel discussion, “Quantifying High-Power Diode Laser Lifetime,” will be held Tuesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m.. Experts will debate why device lifetime numbers differ so much within the industry, with a goal of improving standardization and generating working groups to rectify the problem if necessary.
Special events
SPIE’s Women in Optics invites attendees to a Wednesday evening presentation by Gloria Putnam, Eastman Kodak’s worldwide field-applications engineering manager, in which she describes her technical and marketing involvement with image sensors for scientific, medical, industrial, and photographic applications. In addition, several workshops and courses designed to help students and young professionals build their careers will be offered.
Complementing the technology focus of Photonics West will be the business-focused 16th annual Lasers and Photonics Marketplace Seminar on Jan. 23 at the Fairmont Hotel, which is sponsored by PennWell’s Laser Focus World and Industrial Laser Solutions magazines, and Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, CA). This year, a Fiber Laser Markets Forum will debut in the afternoon. See www.marketplaceseminar.com for details.
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.