Among the highlights of the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) and International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC), which takes place May 31-June 5 at the Baltimore Convention Center, are more than 1200 technical presentations, 39 short courses, seven symposia, more than 100 prominent invited speakers, the PhAST Market Focus, a job fair and career workshop, and PhotonXpo, an exhibit sponsored by 350 companies. CLEO/IQEC combines the strength of peer-reviewed scientific programming with an applications-focused exhibition to showcase the present and future of this technology. Sponsored by the American Physical Society’s Laser Science Div., the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, and the Optical Society of America, the five-day event features cutting-edge optics and photonics programming, tutorials, special symposia, short courses and a full program of networking and social events. Noted plenary speakers will include Federico Capasso of Harvard University, co-inventor of the quantum cascade laser, who will trace its path from new invention to commercialized device used broadly in sensing, spectroscopy and subwavelength photonics; Edward I. Moses, principal associate director for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and Photon Science Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who will talk about the NIF’s technical capabilities, the National Ignition Campaign and the new scientific opportunities in materials science, astrophysics and other areas of high-energy density science; and Alain Aspect, CNRS senior scientist and head of the Atom Optics Group at the Institut d’Optique, France, who will talk about how Bell’s theorem attracted physicists to study entanglement, which led to the new field of quantum information. Included in the seven symposia will be a special joint symposium in honor of Daniel Chemla on coherent interactions of light and condensed matter and 10 years of frequency combs. PhotonXpo – The Exhibit at CLEO, also debuting this year, will feature 350 participating companies showcasing every facet of the optics and photonics industry. Free to all exhibit attendees, the PhAST Market Focus, to be held June 2-4, will feature more than 50 presentations by industry experts and cover business and commercialized applications topics in the areas of energy, biophotonics and security. Sessions include Photonics for Energy, Lasers in PV Processing, Biophotonics, Cell Sorting and Manipulation, Photodynamic Therapy, Photonics for Security and the Environment, Terahertz Technology and Molecular Detection. A PhAST highlight will be the June 2 power lunch presentation, “Strategies for Surviving a Downturn.” Industry leaders will provide insight into how to navigate through a challenging market, and attendees will be given the opportunity to participate in the discussions. Scheduled to speak are the following: Donald E. Bossi, general partner, Technology Venture Partners; Dr. Robert P. Breault, chairman and founder, The Breault Research Organization; Alex Cable, president and founder, Thorlabs; Robert Edmund, CEO, Edmund Optics Worldwide; Wilhelm Kaenders, president, Toptica Photonics; Rob Randelman, president, Ocean Optics; and Michael Morris, president, SpectrEcology. Each industry leader will host his own table, and an interactive question-and-answer period will follow the individual table discussions. For more information, visit: www.cleoconference.org