SPIE Photonics West 2015 Set To Draw Photonics Community To San Francisco

Neurophotonics, high-power lasers, silicon photonics among featured topics

More biomedical optics and neurophotonics, new programs in lasers and 3D printing, silicon photonics for next-generation computing, and a dazzling opening for the International Year of Light are just a few highlights planned for this year's SPIE Photonics West, set for 7-12 February. The event annually attracts more than 20,000 optics and photonics engineers, scientists, industry leaders, and other professionals to the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.

SPIE Photonics West includes two exhibitions featuring 1,250 exhibiting companies; 4,700 papers in three symposia (BiOS, OPTO and LASE) and three virtual symposia (Green Photonics, Translational Research, and 3D Printing); a rich program of industry-focused events topped by presentation of the Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation sponsored by SPIE and Photonics Media, and the SPIE Startup Challenge with sponsorship by Founding Partner Jenoptik, Lead Sponsor Hamamatsu, and other industry leaders; a professional development program including 70 workshops and courses; an extensive student leadership program; and numerous networking opportunities.

The BiOS Expo will showcase 230 companies and runs 7-8 February, and the Photonics West Exhibition will run 10-12 February and include 1,250 suppliers, developers, and manufacturers of the latest products, tools, and applications for research and industry. This year, 13 international cluster and 4 U.S. regional cluster booths are participating.

A two-day Job Fair will connect prospective employees with employers with photonics jobs to fill. Recruiting companies include Apple, ASML, Google, KLA-Tencor, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Newport Corp., Thorlabs, and other industry leaders.

More than 2,200 BiOS presentations will cover the latest research in biomedical optics, diagnostics and therapeutics, biophotonics, new imaging modalities, optical coherence tomography, neurophotonics, optogenetics, and tissue optics.

In neurophotonics, for example, advances will be presented in mapping the brain to go beyond a "view from space" perspective to a "street-level" view for monitoring and treating stroke impacts, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, and other conditions.

The popular BiOS Hot Topics session Saturday evening will feature speakers on several high-interest areas:

• Lihong Wang (Washington University in St. Louis) on photoacoustic tomography
• Vadim Backman (Northwestern University) on cancer screening and nanoscale cytology
• Brett Bouma (Wellman Center for Photomedicine) on endoscopic OCT
• Paola Taroni (Politecnico di Milano) on optical assessment of collagen and breast cancer
• David Roberts (Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center) on fluorescence-guided resection of intracranial tumor
• Richard Rosen (New York Eye and Ear Infirmary) on adaptive optics for the retina
• Peter So (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on nonlinear microscopy
• Rafael Yuste (Columbia University) on simultaneous imaging of neural activity in 3D.

Plenary speakers are:

• 2014 Nobel Laureates Eric Betzig (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) and William Moerner (Stanford University) on their prize-winning work in microscopy providing solutions for diagnostics and therapeutics
• Gabriel Popescu (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) on optics for molecular and cellular biology
• Nobel Laureate Thomas Südhof (Stanford University School of Medicine) on neurexins in synapse formation and associations with brain disorders.

New conferences are on Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases in the Breast and Reproductive System, Optics and Biophotonics in Low-Resource Settings, Molecular-Guided Surgery, and Quantitative Phase Imaging.

Nearly 800 LASE presentations will cover the latest laser manufacturing, laser materials processing, micro-nano packaging, fiber, diode, solid state lasers, laser resonators, ultrafast, semiconductor lasers and LEDs, and 3D fabrication technologies.

Notable among the topics is a conference on High-Power Laser Materials Processing, highlighting technologies that enable light-weight construction of cars and other vehicles, contributing to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

Plenary speakers are:

• Xiaoyan Zeng (Huazhong University of Science and Technology) on laser 3D printing of metallic components
• Donald Cornwell (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) on NASA's optical communications program
• Jens Limpert (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) on coherent combination of ultrafast laser pulses and joule-class high-repetition-rate femtosecond lasers.

A new conference is on Components and Packaging for Laser Systems.

Nearly 1,700 OPTO presentations will cover the latest research in silicon photonics, photonic crystals, optoelectronics, semiconductor lasers, quantum dots, and nanophotonics.

Speakers on next-generation lighting and computing technologies include Nobel Laureates Isamu Akasaki (Meijo University), Hiroshi Amano, (Nagoya University), Shuji Nakamura (University of California, Santa Barbara), and Kostya Novoselov (National Graphene Institute, University of Manchester); and industry representatives Hai-Feng Liu (Intel Corp.) andScott Bickham (Corning Inc.).

Plenary speakers are:

• Christoph Lienau (Carl von Ossietzky University) on ultrafast coherent charge transfer in solar cells and artificial light harvesting systems
• Harry Atwater (California Institute of Technology) on tunable and quantum metaphotonics
• Yurii Vlasov (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center) on silicon integrated nanophotonics.

Three virtual events, Green Photonics, Translational Research, and 3D Printing highlight emerging optics and photonics research that is being applied to address real-world needs in healthcare, energy, manufacturing, and other areas. Best paper awards are presented in each of the broad topic areas to recognize innovative work in topical categories.

Conference proceedings will be published online in the SPIE Digital Library as manuscripts are approved, with CD and print publication to follow when all manuscripts are in.

The International Year of Light will be celebrated with inspiring visual displays emphasizing the importance of light-based technologies in daily life and honoring historical figures for their contributions to optics and photonics technologies, and in a light-themed all-symposium welcome reception. Information on participating in the worldwide observance to help raise awareness of the role light plays in the betterment of humankind will be offered throughout the week.

About SPIE
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. The Society serves nearly 256,000 constituents from approximately 155 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books, journals, and a digital library in support of interdisciplinary information exchange, professional networking, and patent precedent. SPIE provided more than $3.2M in support of education and outreach programs in 2013.