Ruth A. Mendonsa
More than 14,000 photonics scientists, engineers and technicians worldwide will converge on the Munich Trade Fair Site for the 13th LASER conference and exposition June 16 to 20.
This year's event, touted as the leading international trade fair for innovative and applied optoelectronics, will comprise five individual "congresses" organized by the various international optical organizations, plenary lectures and short courses. Organizers hope that the new structure will provide a firm platform for increasing the globalization and the quality and quantity of papers presented at the biennial show.
Also, about 700 exhibitors from Europe and abroad will showcase their products and technologies in the fields of fiber optics, test and measurement, optics, laser and optical technology, production engineering and lasers in medicine.Specialized congresses
LASER 97 participants can attend sessions from five separate congresses that are scheduled throughout the five-day conference:
The EUROPTO Series, a joint venture of the European Optical Society (EOS) and the International Society for Optical Engineering, is organizing the European Symposium for Lasers and Optics in Manufacturing from June 16 to 20. This congress will focus on lasers in materials processing; optical systems for rapid prototyping and flexible manufacturing; and optics and vision in manufacturing. Topics include optical fiber sensor technologies and applications; sensors, sensor systems and sensor data processing; optical inspection and micromeasurements; new image processing techniques and applications; and vision systems -- algorithms, components and applications.
EUROPTO is also sponsoring the Third Symposium for Environmental Sensing (EnviroSense '97) from June 16 to 20. The lineup features five sessions on remote sensing: lidar atmospheric monitoring, standardization of remote-sensing methods, spectroscopic atmospheric monitoring techniques, remote sensing of vegetation and in-situ measuring of water quality. It also includes two in-situ techniques: combustion diagnostics; and chemical, biochemical and environmental sensors.
The European Physical Society (EPS) will sponsor sessions dealing with novel lasers, devices and applications; and adaptive optics. The program for novel lasers, devices and applications, scheduled for June 18 and 19, includes talks from invited speakers on ultrashort pulses, high- intensity laser pulses, diode-pumped solid-state lasers, nonlinear frequency conversion, diode lasers, and fiber and waveguide lasers.
At the Conference on Nonastronomical Adaptive Optics (NAAO '97), organized by EPS and the Optical Society of America (OSA), optics researchers will present papers dealing with laser propagation in the atmosphere; the status of applications in astronomy; industrial applications, such as machining and materials processing; medical applications, such as ophthalmology and endoscopy; applications in optical microscopy; new technologies for wavefront correctors and wavefront sensors; and low-cost systems. NAAO is slated for June 16 and 17.
Plenary topics
The LASERmed conference, sponsored by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Lasermedizin (DGLM), will feature topics including clinical laser application, lasers and radiological procedures, experimental laser medicine and progress in photodynamics. It is slated for June 18 to 20.
In addition to its congress offerings, each organizing group is sponsoring a plenary session for all conference participants. Each session will focus on a topic relative to each organizer's respective congress.
M. Hutley, president of EOS, will discuss "New Chances of Measuring Techniques by Diffractive Optics." EUROPTO is sponsoring the talk. OSA/EPS will present David Williams of OSA, speaking on "Adaptive Optics for the Human Eye." H.W. Steen will focus on "Current Trends in Laser Materials Processing" for EUROPTO. The European Physical Society will present David Payne discussing "Optical Communication." As part of DGLM's LASERmed program, J. Waldschmidt of the Freie Universität in Berlin will talk about "Lasers in Surgery," and the Universität München's A. Hofstetter will speak on "Lasers in Urology."