Conference Notes

Industry Leaders and Public Authorities Celebrate EPIC 10th Anniversary

The EPIC anniversary was celebrated through a rich combination of activities, bringing together the focus on public policy as well as the European photonics community cohesion. Meetings with the European Commission, an EU Funding session, the presentation of the EPIC Phoenix Award, and the two panel discussions on technology and business made up the core of the event. The occasion concluded with a festive and entertaining dinner, which provided an additional networking opportunity in a convivial environment. One hundred sixty delegates from 26 countries attended the occasion, including executives from industry and representatives from public authorities. Anne Matsuura, Senior Science Advisor at the Optical Society (OSA), presented EPIC and its Director General Carlos Lee with a recognition (Figure 1) at the occasion of its 10th anniversary. EPIC was recognized by OSA for its sustained effort in promoting the photonics industry in Europe for a decade.

Figure 1

The EPIC Phoenix Award 2013 recognizing entrepreneurship in the field of photonics was presented to Advanced Fibreoptic Engineering from the UK. Nick Martin, CEO of AFE, receives the award from Drew Nelson, President of EPIC.

The keynote presentation by Luc Van den hove, CEO of imec, gave participants the opportunity to peak into the exciting possibilities in the field of Medical and Life Science fuelled with electronics and photonics technologies in the short-term, which triggered great interest and discussion in the subsequent panel discussions.

The photovoltaic technology also put forward several comments related to pricing, manufacturing, and regulation, but Eicke Weber from Fraunhofer ISE reminded all of the importance of access to capital for large-scale manufacturing capability and also clarified misconceptions about the cost of PV and how in some regions it is already competitive. The discussion was very down to earth addressing issues such as access to skilled labor and increasing the involvement of women, public procurement as a tool to promote the uptake of new technologies for instance in LED street lighting, and optimization of funding possibilities including the use of regional development funds. Martin De Prycker, ex-CEO of startup Caliopa, said that public funding can be a golden cage and encouraged innovators to go out and start up on their own. At the moment, however, industry is still heavily reliant on support from public authorities (even though the accessibility and priorities need to be reviewed); hence, a possible call for follow-up action may be coordinated by EPIC on behalf of its members.

Drew Nelson, President of EPIC, asked for regulations to be aligned and supportive of Europe’s priorities, pointing out that GaAS and InP have been placed by the European Chemicals Agency on the list of substances of very high concern (SVHC) and that EPIC asked for a diligence process.

Carlos Lee, Director General of EPIC, reminded that photonics often do not demand high production volumes and that it was important for companies to have access to low-scale manufacturing through foundries or universities who already have the necessary equipment and infrastructure.

Regularly, the discussion was brought back to politicians, elected by citizens, hence, the need for further promotion of photonics toward the public at large (Figure 2). A unique opportunity for raising awareness of photonics will be during the United Nations recognized 2015 Year of Light. The initiative, supported by EPIC and many organizations worldwide, will provide the opportunity in the 2014–2016 timeframe to coordinate activities raising awareness of photonics. A participant suggested to compliment this with an annual ‘Day of Photonics’ for long-term systematic awareness of the industry’s importance and contribution to addressing our societal challenges.

Figure 2

Panel Discussion on ‘Science, Research, and Applications.’

Anne Glover, Chief Scientific Advisor to the President of the European Commission; Thomas Skordas, Head of Photonics Unit, European Commission; Eicke Weber, Director, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Germany); Christian Bosshard, Vice President, CSEM (Switzerland); Santiago Royo, Director, UPC-CD6 (Spain); Gediminas Raciukaitis, Head of Department, Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (Lithuania).

The session on EU Funding gathered 70 companies with extensive experience in EU Funding and which are currently planning their participation in the upcoming calls. In addition to the Photonics calls, also opportunities in Electronics were presented, and EPIC promised to organize joint meetings with other sectors such as Life Science, Transport, Security, Energy, and other fields where photonics play an enabling role.

The event was also the opportunity for the International Optoelectronics Association to meet; EPIC hosted the 18th IOA meeting at which market data and technology trends could be shared among eight associations from Europe/America/Asia for further dissemination among their members. The IOA was sponsored by Photonics Finland and SWISSPHOTONICS. Sponsors of the anniversary event included CEA-LETI, CSEM, Edmund Optics, and Laser World of Photonics.

Carlos Lee, Director General EPIC

www.epic-assoc.com

Preview: Laser Optics/OSA Optics and Photonics Congress

Berlin, Germany, 18–20 March 2014

Laser Optics 2014 is a trade show in the heart of Berlin. Organized by Messe Berlin, it is changing its concept toward joint developments and applications of optical technologies and microsys technology. Thereby, it unites the former event series Laser Optics Berlin LOB and microsys.

The location of the event is the fairground close to the famous Funkturm (Figure 3). The trade show is accompanied by a number of scientific congresses and an even bigger number of networking events. Additionally, there will be strong career-focused activities with a pupils’ day, two student days, and a job board at the tradeshow.

Figure 3

The location of the event is the fairground close to the famous Funkturm (Photo: Messe Berlin GmbH).

Preview: SPIE Photonics Europe

Brussels, Belgium, 14–17 April 2014

SPIE Photonics Europe has established itself as the biggest photonics conference in Europe every other (even) year. The conference location is the SQUARE Brussels Meeting Centre in the heart of the European capital. It is just a few steps away from the Brussels central train station, overlooking the city from the hillside of Mont des Arts.

As one may see in the following list, the European elite of scientists in applied optical and photonics research meets here in not less than 18 subconferences:

• Metamaterials (Chairs: Allan D. Boardman; Nigel P. Johnson; Kevin F. MacDonald; Ekmel Özbay)

• Nanophotonics (Chairs: David L. Andrews; Jean-Michel Nunzi; Andreas Ostendorf)

• Photonic Crystal Materials and Devices (Chairs: Sergei G. Romanov; Gabriel Lozano; Dario Gerace; Christelle Monat; Hernán R. Míguez)

• Micro-Structured and Specialty Optical Fibres (Chairs: Kyriacos Kalli; Alexis Mendez)

• Biophotonics: Photonic Solutions for Better Health Care (Chairs: Jürgen Popp; Valery V. Tuchin; Dennis L. Matthews; Francesco S. Pavone)

• Micro-Optics (Chairs: Hugo Thienpont; Jürgen Mohr; Hans Zappe; Hirochika Nakajima)

• Optical Modelling and Design (Chairs: Frank Wyrowski; John T. Sheridan; Jani Tervo; Youri Meuret)

• Optical Micro- and Nanometrology (Chairs: Christophe Gorecki; Anand K. Asundi; Wolfgang Osten)

• Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits (Chairs: Laurent Vivien; Seppo Honkanen; Lorenzo Pavesi; Stefano Pelli)

• Semiconductor Lasers and Laser Dynamics (Chairs: Krassimir Panajotov; Marc Sciamanna; Angel Valle; Rainer Michalzik)

• Laser Sources and Applications (Chairs: Jacob I. Mackenzie; Helena JelÍnková; Takunori Taira; Marwan Abdou Ahmed)

• Nonlinear Optics and its Applications (Chairs: Benjamin J. Eggleton; Alexander L. Gaeta; Neil G. R. Broderick)

• Organic Photonics (Chairs: Barry P. Rand; Chihaya Adachi; David Cheyns; Volker van Elsbergen)

• Optics, Photonics and Digital Technologies for Multimedia Applications (Chairs: Peter Schelkens; Touradj Ebrahimi; Gabriel Cristóbal; Frédéric Truchetet; Pasi Saarikko; Jukka-Tapani Mäkinen)

• Real-Time Image and Video Processing (Chairs: Nasser Kehtarnavaz; Matthias F. Carlsohn)

• Photonics for Solar Energy Systems (Chairs: Ralf B. Wehrspohn; Andreas Gombert)

• Optical Sensing and Detection (Chairs: Francis Berghmans; Anna G. Mignani; Piet De Moor)

• Quantum Optics (Chairs: Alexander V. Sergienko; Arno Rauschenbeutel; Thomas Durt)

Preview: 115. DGAO Tagung 2014

Karlsruhe, Germany, 10–14. June 2014

The German Society of Applied Optics DGaO is one of the oldest optical societies in the world. It has the long-standing tradition to convene in the week after Pentecost. The 115th Annual Meeting of the DGaO will take place in Karlsruhe from 10 to 14 June 2014. The local chair is Professor Christian Koos from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics (IPQ).

Karlsruhe is a pleasant town with rich history and beautiful architecture. The city was planned about 300 years ago with the palace tower (Schloss) at the center and 32 streets radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel, so that one nickname for Karlsruhe in German is the ‘fan city’ (Fächerstadt).

Today, Karlsruhe is also a famous place for science and research. It is the home of the KIT, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, with 9,000 researchers one of the largest research institutions in Europe.

The main topics of this year’s DGaO Meeting will be:

• Micro- and nanophotonics

• Biophotonics and optofluidics

• Terahertz- and IR-Photonics

• Optical metrology

• Image and signal processing

• Systems design in optics and photonics

While abstracts were due in January, the main program will be published in March 2014. All authors are required to submit a two-page summary of their presentation by 25 July 2014. The early bird registration for all visitors will end on 11 May 2014 (Figure 4).

Figure 4

The main conference location will be the Konzerthaus Karlsruhe (Photo: Wikipedia/Christophe Finot).