Photonics West Gears up for 2025 Showcase

Courtesy of SPIE.

San Francisco’s Moscone Center will play host once again to the optics and photonics industries’ premiere event from Jan. 25 to 30, 2025. Photonics West 2025 will feature more than 5000 technical presentations, and show organizers are expected to welcome more than 1500 exhibiting companies from around the world. Visitors will be able to explore the long-standing BiOS Expo and Photonics West Exhibition as well as the Quantum West Expo, which was introduced in 2024.

Photonics West 2025 will offer 100 conferences across the BiOS, LASE, OPTO, and Quantum West symposia. Program highlights include the annual BiOS Hot Topics plenary, which will feature a session on sensing in the surgical field through vision and robotics by Imperial College London’s Daniel Elson. The University of Ottawa’s Paul Corkum headlines the OPTO symposium with a presentation focusing on the importance of plasma in the generation of both atto-second and terahertz pulses.

Courtesy of SPIE.

Additional plenaries and keynotes will explore technologies in imaging, sensing, materials, and more. LASE symposium plenaries and Hot Topics sessions will feature Constantin Häfner from the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT and Aiko Narazaki from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Häfner will discuss the field of laser inertial fusion energy’s recent boost and how it is affecting both the private and research sectors as well as how its acceleration to practicality will affect the wider photonics market. Narazaki’s session will cover data-driven laser processing using high-speed data acquisition and AI data optimization for higher throughput and quality.

Courtesy of SPIE.

Quantum West will offer seven tracks: Quantum Information Systems; Quantum Communications; Quantum Computing and Simulation; Quantum Sensing, Imaging, and Timing Systems; Enabling Materials, Devices, and Techniques; Quantum Biology; and Complex Light and Optical Forces. Additionally, the Quantum West Business Summit will run from Jan. 27 to 29. Panelists and speakers include Peter Knight of Imperial College London, who will discuss the current and future state of quantum technology from the perspectives of both government and industry. Knight will be joined by top industry figures, including COO of Google Quantum AI, Charina Chou, who will serve on a panel discussing how quantum is transforming computational paradigms, and Roman Orus, chief scientific officer of Multiverse Computing.

Courtesy of SPIE.

Following the BiOS exhibition, which runs from Jan. 25 to 26, the Photonics West Exhibition kicks off on Jan. 28 and runs through Jan. 30. The expo will offer product demos and product releases, with industry events scheduled for all three exhibition days. Photonics West company announcements are available to view before, during, and after the show via SPIE.org.

The 17th annual Prism Awards ceremony will be held on Jan. 29 during a gala event to honor the best new optics and photonics products on the market. The Catalyst Award will also see a second iteration. The award recognizes for-profit companies with specific socially or environmentally focused programs that have had a significant positive effect within their workplace, on society, or on the environment.

The annual SPIE Startup Challenge, in which participating companies vie for sponsored prizes and the attention of potential investors, will also return on Jan. 28. Companies will compete and present their business and financial cases to a panel of industry judges that includes venture capitalists and business development experts.

For more information and to register to attend Photonics West 2025, visit www.spie.org/photonics-west.