SPIE Optics + Photonics, to be held Aug. 28-Sept. 1 in San Diego, is touted the largest international, multidisciplinary optical sciences and technology meeting in North America. The event highlights the latest research in optical engineering and applications, nanotechnology, sustainable energy, and organic photonics.

A number of conference topics will be held, offering attendees a closer look at various research focuses and fields. Among them:

Nanoscience + Engineering — focusing on metamaterials, nanophotonic materials, plasmonics, quantum science, CNTs, graphene, optical trapping, thin films, spintronics, nanostructured devices, nanoengineering, nanoimaging, nanospectroscopy, and 2D and low-dimensional materials;

Optics + Photonics for Sustainable Energy — focusing on photovoltaics, thin film solar technology, concentrators, hydrogen fuels, next generation cell technology, BIPV, perovskites;

Organic Photonics + Electronics — focusing on OLEDs, OFETS, OPVs, organic sensors and bioelectronics, organic materials, liquid crystals, printed memory and circuits;

Optical Engineering + Applications — focusing on optical design and engineering, photonic devices and applications, x-ray, gamma-ray, and particle technologies, image and signal processing, remote sensing, space optical systems.

Plenary sessions will be held throughout the conference, presented by researchers and industry experts from around the world, including Paras N. Prasad of the State University of New York at Buffalo, a 2016 SPIE Gold Medal Award winner, who will speak about Photon Management Through In Situ Photon Conversion with Optical Nanotransformers: Fundamentals to Emerging Technological Applications. Also presenting will be Michael T. Tolley of the University of California, San Diego, who will discuss Biological Inspiration for New Opportunities in Robotics; Alexandra Boltasseva of Purdue University, who will present Emerging Materials for Nanophotonics and Plasmonics; Zhenan Bao of Stanford University, discussing Stretchable Electronic Materials for Skin-inspired Devices; and Harald Giessen of the University of Stuttgart in Germany, who will talk about New Avenues in Plasmonics: Short-range Surface Plasmons Meet Orbital Angular Momenta: Deep Subwavelength Spatial and Subfemtosecond Time Resolution.

Courses are also scheduled, featuring a variety of topics under several tracks — Optomechanics and Optical Manufacturing, Detectors and Imaging, Professional Development, and Optics Educators.

SPIE Optics + Photonics hosts a job fair, and also features an exhibition throughout the event, where technologies including test and measurement equipment, optical components, lenses, detectors, sensors, cameras and imaging systems, lasers, laser systems, fiber optics, chemicals, optical coatings, thin films, nano-precision products, products for sustainable energy research, LED and OLED technology will be showcased. Companies and organizations slated for the exhibition include Agilent Technologies, Edmund Optics, Lambda Research Corp., Xenics USA, Zurich Instruments, Hamamatsu Corp., the New York Photonics Industry Association, Optikos Corp., Quantel Laser, and Mad City Labs.

For more information, visit: http://spie.org/conferences-and-exhibitions/optics-and-photonics.