CLEO news: Thursday

17 Jun 2002

Peter Knight, vice-president of the Optical Society of America (OSA), gives his thoughts on this year's show.

In a year where a strong technical registration was expected, people are happy with the scientific content of the latest Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), according to OSA vice-president Peter Knight.

With topics ranging from microstructured fibers to Bose-Einstein condensates and high-power lasers to organic photonic systems, this year's CLEO apparently has had something for everyone.

And this is the beauty of the meeting in Knight's opinion. "CLEO allows a common forum for fundamental physics to novel laser applications," he told Optics.org, citing a paper on spin-polarization of atoms applied to imaging of the lungs as an example.

"It brings together a wide range of people and is very good for technology transfer," he continued. "Some of the short courses are covering quite fundamental things and we are seeing engineers attending."

Turning to the commercial side of the annual six-day gathering, the organizers have noted a slight drop-off in the number of exhibitors with this year's figure totalling 326.

"With the state of the economy, it might be a strain on the smaller companies because of the proximity of other events such as OFC [Optical Fiber Communication conference]," said Knight. "All the large companies are still here though." In future, Knight says that there may be a case for moving the timing of CLEO.

Although the exact number of attendees has not been released, preliminary figures indicate it will be around the 5800 mark. The final numbers will make interesting reading as they serve as a useful indicator for the state of health of the photonics industry.

Next year, CLEO will be held in the Baltimore Convention Center from June 1 to June 6, with a technical exhibit from June 3 to June 5. Provisional arrangements have been made to hold the 2004 conference in San Francisco.

Liz Rogan has been voted in as the new executive director of the OSA. In the tasks in her new role, Rogan will be responsible for steering the membership of the society and control of the budget.

Author
Jacqueline Hewett is news reporter on Optics.org and Opto & Laser Europe magazine.