SPIE Photonics Industry Summit emphasizes US technology leadership

30 Sep 2025

Washington DC gathering took place at an uncertain time for ongoing federal investment.

By William G. Schulz

Optics and photonics industry players gathered in Washington, DC, on 18 September for the fourth annual SPIE Photonics Industry Summit. With more than one hundred industry leaders in attendance, the day-long summit featured a variety of US federal government executives who spoke about their programs and the importance of connecting science, technology, and public policy.

Industry representatives who, throughout the day, introduced speakers and panel discussions included Joseph Spilman of Optimax; Lukas Gruber, Leonardo; Matt Sydor, Sydor Optics; Robert Warren, Hamamatsu; and Tom Tongue, Toptica. Legislators in attendance included Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ); Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ); Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ); Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT); Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY); and Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ).

In his keynote address for this year’s summit, Optics and Photonics Caucus Co-Chair, Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) emphasized the need for continued federal investment in science and technology to maintain the US lead in innovation. Morelle noted that the nation is engaged in a contest of ideas, globally, but particularly with the People’s Republic of China. To be victorious, he said, “the United States government has got to helm a national effort to stay at the leading edge of technology advancement, and that most certainly includes optics and photonics.”

Investment shortfall

Unfortunately, he continued, federal investment in science and technology has not been keeping pace, and this year, unless legislators intervene and restore funding, many science agencies are facing steep budget cuts. “It’s easy to stop innovation,” said Morelle. “It’s much harder to restart it because you’ll lose the critical infrastructure, which is not only physical infrastructure but human infrastructure—human capital.”

SPIE CEO Kent Rochford introduced the Summit’s first speaker, Emily R Kinser, program director at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which is part of the Department of Energy. Established by congressional statute in 2009, a primary goal for the agency is maintaining US technology leadership.

Kinser said the US holds a strong leadership position in photonics technology, which came about “not overnight but by decades of leadership and investment.” ARPA-E wants to contribute to that ongoing leadership, she said, through investments in disruptive technology aimed at areas like, for example, resilient infrastructure, power electronics, data infrastructure, and energy-related emissions.

The US Army’s Keith Alan Krapels, director of the technical center of the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command, discussed some of the challenges of US missile defense strategies—currently based on kinetic interceptors—to non-kinetic effectors, namely directed energy weapons (DEW) and high-power microwave systems.

“Today, we’re shooting down $100,000 targets with $10-million interceptors,” he said. Barriers to transition, he said, include scaling up laser sources, increased photonics engineering expertise, as well as improvements in sensing and countermeasures.

Krapels recommends creating a comprehensive engineering handbook that would capture best practices and lessons learned from existing prototypes, as well as cross-industry collaborations for engineers to share knowledge and experiences. What’s more, he says, the federal government should consider tax incentives for existing companies to invest in DEW and microwave systems.

NASA’s achievements

SPIE Fellow Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, provided research updates from the agency. “Optics have been critical to everything we’ve done over the history of NASA science and will continue to be as important if not more important as we go forward,” he said.

In his wide-ranging talk, Clampin highlighted Earth science achievements at NASA, including recent tsunami detection by the experimental GUARDIAN (GNSS Upper Atmospheric Real-time Disaster Information and Alert Network) system under development at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This is really important work that benefits the nation,” he said.

On the healthcare front, SPIE Fellow Bruce Tromberg, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), noted that, of NIBIB’s $2 billion in grant funding for fiscal year 2024, 67% involved optics and photonics, supporting innovative technologies like focused ultrasound and optical coherence tomography.

A number of projects, Tromberg continued, are at the intersection of imaging with artificial intelligence (AI) and computing. “It’s kind of a classic pairing,” he said. “You can’t make an image without computation. So, advances in AI in particular are driving the optimization of techniques where maybe there are hardware limitations, but with the right types of training and approaches, the full intent of the imaging technology is improved.”

Achieving societal impact

Other speakers at the Industry Summit included Chaitan Baru of the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP). As the newest NSF directorate, he said TIP aims to accelerate the movement of research ideas into societal impact. Programs are focused on use-inspired and translational research within key technology focus areas, providing pathways for researchers, startups, small businesses, and aspiring entrepreneurs to move their ideas from the lab to the market and society.

Jeffrey Wright, technical program manager for emerging technologies at the Department of Defense, Defense Innovation Unit, says the unit’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of commercial technology, emphasizing speed and scale. As such, DIU has three main pillars: synchronizing warfighter needs with commercial capabilities, creating a streamlined process for commercial engagement, and catalyzing a unified ecosystem. Wright said DIU procures new technologies via a process that first identifies and confirms that solutions exist within the commercial marketplace. Companies can then submit proposals, which are reviewed and narrowed down to a few companies that are invited to make in-person pitches.

Matthew Borman of the Akin law firm gave attendees an update on US export control law and regulations. He emphasized that within government there exist differing schools of thought on chip exports. Some policymakers favor selling to China to continue its dependence on US technology, whereas others harbor concerns about enabling China to use the technology against the US.

Borman also recounted some of the history of the Wassenaar Agreement to coordinate export control proposals. Russia is party to the agreement, but its increased use of veto power has led Western members to act more bilaterally. For companies who want to get ahead of any relevant export controls for their products, Akin suggested using a Department of Commerce hotline established to assist.

While the partisanship and uncertainty continued elsewhere in DC, there was a clear consensus in the room at SPIE’s Industry Summit that optics and photonics will play a key role in the future of America’s science and technology leadership.

William G. Schulz is Editor in Chief of SPIE Photonics Focus.