BELLINGHAM, Wash., Aug. 30 -- About 4250 attended the 49th annual meeting of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE), held this month at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Organizers said that included 2916 attendees, 580 exhibit-only visitors and 757 sales representatives. The event also featured 2549 technical presentations. The meeting also featured a workshop commemorating the career of Vladimir E. Zuev (1925-2003), a pioneer in the field of atmospheric optics, by Steven F. Clifford, director of the US Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Gennadii G. Matvienko, director of the Institute of Atmospheric Optics at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Zuev, who founded the Institute of Atmospheric Optics in 1969, was a prominent scientist known for his expertise in atmospheric and oceanic optics, environmental and climatic monitoring, atmospheric spectroscopy and optical instrumentation construction. The event also featured a conference on solid-state lighting chaired by Ian T. Ferguson, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology; Nadarajah Narendr, director of research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institue's Lighting Research Center; Steven P. DenBaars, professor of materials and co-director of the Solid-State Lighting Center at the University of California Santa Barbara; and John C. Carrano, program manager of the Microsystems Technology Officer, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Sarah Kurtz, principal scientist and group manager of the US Dept. of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, presented "Growing Pains for New Energy-Saving Technologies," an overview of the state of energy-saving technologies such as photovoltaics and photonic illumination. Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, a professor of physics at the University of Colorado/Boulder, spoke at a sold-out awards banquet, where 33 SPIE members were inducted as SPIE Fellows and annual SPIE awards were presented. Award recipients were: Roland Shack, Gold Medal of the Society Award; James R. Janesick of Sarnoff Corp., educator award; Ivan Bozovic of Stanford Univ., technology achievement award; Francois T.S. Yu of Penn State Univ., the Dennis Gabor Award for his work in electro-optical systems; Burn Lin of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the Fritz Zernike Award for microlithography; and Juan L. Rayces of J.L. Rayces Consulting Inc., the A.E. Conrady Award for his pioneering work in test and measurement instrumentation. R. Clark Jones (1916-2004) was posthumously awareded the G.G. Stokes Award for his achievements in optical polarization. Debbie Hunt, vice president and general manager at Rocky Mountain Instrument Co. (RMI), in Lafayette, Colo., presented the industry viewpoint at a discussion on trends in photonics and workforce issues at a "Colorado Women in Optics: from Industry to Academia" panel discussion. Carmen S. Menoni, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Colorado State University, in Ft. Collins, presented the academic perspective. Eleven SPIE technical working groups met at the annual meeting, covering topics such as lens design, penetrating radiation, high-energy optics, adaptive optics and nanotechnology. K.L. Rowlen, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado/Boulder, presented a paper, "Harnessing Surface Plasmons," on investigations underway by Rowlen and her colleagues into the source of "blinking" in nanostructures of silver films. The purpose of Rowlen's work has been to produce "surface plasmon" enhancement of transmission through arrays of metalized nanoholes for use in very near-field imaging applications. For more information, visit: www.spie.org