SPIE Photonics West
The photonics community will gather once again for SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco from 1 to 6 February 2020. Photonics West will see 1,350 companies exhibiting products during the trade fair from 4 to 6 February, with 220 exhibitors present at the accompanying Bios expo on the 1 and 2 February. Imaging technology will be among the equipment on display, while the accompanying conference sessions will include scientific papers presented on various topics, but especially in the area of life sciences.
The photonics in healthcare session, from 10am to 12pm on 2 February, will have presentations on: multispectral and fluorescence image-guided surgery from Richelle Hovelling at Quest Medical Imaging; image sensors for medical applications from Stefan Beyer at Berliner Glas; why low light imaging capabilities enable advances in research and medicine from Stephanie Fullerton at Hamamatsu; and hyperspectral sensing for wearables for health diagnostics from Ward van der Tempel at Spectricity. There will be a session on artificial intelligence in medical imaging from 1.30pm to 4pm on 2 February.
Belgian research institute Imec will be running a technology forum from 12pm to 5.30pm on 3 February, which includes a talk on hyperspectral imaging and computational imaging.
Elsewhere, various entrepreneur sessions have been scheduled, including a panel discussion on investing in photonics on 4 February from 2.45pm to 3.45pm.
On 5 February, from 11.30am until 12.30pm, SPIE’s Jennifer Douris O'Bryan will run a meeting on export control for cameras, while, later that day from 3pm to 5pm, there will be a workshop on legal issues facing the optics and tech industry, which includes international trade considerations.
SPIE will host a job fair at Photonics West on the 4 and 5 February, and also run a career summit from 2 to 4 February – the career summit includes sessions on designing a career path, communication, strategies for a successful job search, and salary negotiation.
A number of workshops on equity, diversity and inclusion have been organised. One of these events, on 2 February from 5pm to 7pm, will be a Wikipedia edit-a-thon, where visitors can bring a laptop and edit Wikipedia pages about inspiring women, ethnic, or racial minority scientists that don’t get the recognition they deserve. Networking and professional development events will also run throughout the week.