Solar Research Tops Agenda

The latest research, technologies and applications in solar and alternative energies, nanotechnology, organic LEDs, optical design and remote sensing will be discussed at SPIE Optics+Photonics 2008, the largest optical sciences and technology meeting in North America. The conference and exhibition will be held Aug. 10-14 at the San Diego Convention Center.

With over 2800 papers, 55 full- and half-day courses, numerous plenary speakers, poster sessions, career networking opportunities, many technical events and more than 250 exhibiting companies, Optics and Photonics 2008 is a must-attend event for anyone working in optics and photonics. More than 4500 optical engineers and researchers are expected to participate.

The five-day event is divided into four technical conferences on the topics of nanoscience and engineering, solar energy, photonic devices, optical engineering, with plenary sessions held on specific topics in each general area.

The all-conference plenary session on Aug. 10 at 6 p.m. will be presented by Richard King, director of the Solar Decathlon at the US Department of Energy. King will speak on the Solar Decathlon -- a competition featuring a "solar village" of 20 zero-energy homes built by university teams from architecture and engineering schools in North America and Europe. For nine days last October, the National Mall served as a living laboratory for the best ideas in solar energy, energy efficiency and home design. King will discuss the results of the decathlon, the lessons learned, its role in research and development, and what to look forward to in the future.

The Nanoscience + Engineering conference is one of the largest and most important technical conferences covering developing technologies at the nanoscale, current and future applications, and the environmental, health, and safety issues that must be addressed.

Its plenary sessions are scheduled to include: Joseph Zyss, physics professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Cachan near Paris and founding director of the D’Alembert Institute, who will speak on molecular nonlinear optics in physics, chemistry and the life sciences; Rajesh R. Naik of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, who will discuss applications of biological materials; Kwang-Sup Lee of Hannam University in South Korea, who will talk on two-photon lithography for 3-D nano- and micro-objects; Kanti Jain, electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who will speak on excimer laser lithography and photoablation technologies for large-area micro- and nanoelectronics, displays and microsystems; and Denis Fichou, a research director at CNRS in France and current head of the Laboratory of Organic Nanostructures and Semiconductors that he founded in CEA-Saclay, near Paris, whose talk will report on a variety of periodic 2-D supramolecular structures that have been recently prepared and investigated by using scanning tunneling microscopy at the liquid/solid interface.

Alternative energy technologies and systems will be discussed as part of the Solar Energy + Applications conference. Its plenary sessions will include:

"Nanostructures for High Efficiency Photovoltaics," Harry A. Atwater, professor of applied physics and materials science at the California Institute of Technology
"The Environment's Effects on Solar Radiation," Joseph J. Michalsky Jr., physical scientist, NOAA Earth System Research Lab, Boulder, Colo.
"Direct Conversion of Solar Energy to Hydrogen," Craig A. Grimes, director, Center for Solar Nanomaterials, and electrical engineering professor, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.
"The Reliability of PV Systems," John H. Wohlgemuth, BP Solar International LLC
"Commercializing CPV: What Lies Ahead?" Dave Holland, Solar Systems Pty Ltd., Australia.

Giving plenary talks under the category of Solid-State Lighting (SSL) and OLEDs will be Dave Irvine-Halliday of the University of Calgary, Canada, who will speak on why the developing world is the perfect market for SSL; and Mark E. Thompson of the University of Southern California, who will talk about the chemistry and design of broadband white-emissive OLEDs.

The topic of remote sensing will also be the focus of several talks covering topics including: how proposed new missions for NASA and NOAA to improve the understanding of Earth system science can also help address the challenges of climate change, the struggle to recover atmospheric information from the damaged High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) on NASA's EOS Aura satellite, the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) role in supporting climate-change research, the concept of creating an "infrared retina" using nanoscale quantum dots and strain-layer superlattices, and how satellites have been helping the fire management community by providing near real-time information on fire locations, burned area and pollutant levels to manage wildfires and assess their air-quality impact.

Optics+Photonics 2008 will also include a special session in recognition of the contributions made by professor Larry Dalton. Eight invited speakers will lead the session that highlights state-of-the-art research in nonlinear optic polymer electro-optic modulator materials and devices, presented by leading researchers in the field and their collaborations with Dalton, holder of the George B. Kauffman Professorship in Chemistry and an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington.

Also taking place during the conference, Aug. 12 at 6 p.m., will be SPIE's annual general meeting, where the 2008 election results will be revealed, a report given on the state of the society and a question-and-answer session with SPIE officers.

For more information, visit: http://spie.org/optics-photonics.xml