Texas A&M announced that it will host the inaugural BioMedOpTex Symposium May 23-25 at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center at the George Bush Presidential Library. The three-day symposium, sponsored by the department of biomedical engineering, Texas Engineering Experiment Station and SPIE, will highlight new trends and progress made in biomedical optical technologies and applications in diagnostics and therapeutics to improve public health worldwide. The event will feature a student development workshop that includes a session with author Peter Fiske and an entrepreneurial panel discussion with university researchers and industry leaders. A student poster reception will also take place. Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering, and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice University, and founder of Beyond Traditional Borders; and Lihong Wang, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Bbiomedical Engineering, Washington University, and author of Biomedical Optics: Principles and Imaging, will give invited talks. Robert Nordstrom of the National Cancer Institute, Sohi Rastegar of the National Science Foundation and Ramesh Raghavachari from the FDA will lead a panel discussion on the future direction of biomedical optics. Facility and biomedical optics lab tours will also be available. “We hope this inaugural symposium will become an annual event,” said Kristen Maitland, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and chair of the symposium. “Optical techniques play a critical role in biomedical studies ranging from basic biological science to in vivo imaging and therapies. This symposium will showcase cutting-edge research in the region, provide an opportunity for students to interact with experts in the field and foster collaborations.” For more information, visit: http://biomed.tamu.edu/bmot/