By Geoff Giordano
When Silke Pflueger attended her first ICALEO® in San Diego in the 1990s, she was a bit overwhelmed by having to give a talk about her work.
“The first presentation is scary,” she recalls. But that initial involvement has led Pflueger all the way to serving as congress general chair of ICALEO, the International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics, to be held Oct. 18-22 at the Sheraton Atlanta in the heart of the city. Now she is overseeing a team of conference chairs for the 2015 gathering, including:
- Laser Materials Processing Conference: Christoph Leyens, Fraunhofer IWS
- Laser Microprocessing Conference: Michelle Stock, mlstock consulting
- Nanomanufacturing Conference: Yongfeng Lu, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Business Forum & Panel Discussion: Klaus Loeffler, TRUMPF, and Bo Gu, BOS Photonics
“With over 200 presentations and posters on the latest in laser research, strengthened by the peer-review process introduced last year, ICALEO will provide another outstanding opportunity to learn about advances in laser material processing,” Pflueger notes in her welcome message for the ICALEO advance program (available online at www.icaleo.org).
Biomedical applications, “the newest addition to the ICALEO family,” will kick off the scientific proceedings in the opening plenary, as well as being featured in the Microprocessing Conference. “We are hoping to inspire you beyond your daily work, to show you what lasers are already doing for our health, and what they will be able to do for us in the future,” Pflueger explains. “Some of the laser material interaction will look familiar, and the lasers will look familiar. But be prepared to be surprised.”
Likewise, the always-inspiring closing plenaries will diverge from the traditional, Pflueger says: “Two of the talks will touch on lasers that may impact your work in years to come — one at a wavelength that we have not had as an industrial laser, one a new type of diode laser that may revolutionize our world just like broad-area diode lasers did in the past 20 years. We will then hear about lasers that aren’t built to cut or weld or microstructure, but that are built for other applications — applications that help us see the world differently.”
The business forum, which traditionally provides entrepreneurial insights into the laser industry in general and job shops in particular, will feature five experts addressing some key themes:
- Status and Development of the Laser Market: Mark Douglass, Longbow Research
- Successful Start up with Licensed IP: Michelle L. Stock, mlstock consulting
- Successful Business in Services for Lasers: Neil Ball, Directed Light
- Successes of Laser Welding in a Job Shop: Gordon McIntosh, Special Welding Services-Trimac Inc.
- Successful Business Model in Laser Additive Manufacturing/Job Shop: Dan Hayden, Hayden Laser Services
When not immersed in cutting-edge research, attendees at the 34th ICALEO will have an abundance of networking opportunities at the Sunday night Welcome Celebration, the Monday evening President’s Reception, the Tuesday morning running club, the Tuesday evening Vendor Reception & Tabletop Display and Wednesday’s Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon featuring Dr. Keming Du, the recipient of the Arthur L. Schawlow Award. The Vendor Reception provides an opportunity to speak with key laser companies, like platinum sponsor IPG Photonics, gold sponsors TRUMPF and SPI Lasers, silver sponsors Laserline, JDSU and Altos Photonics, and bronze sponsors including Spectra-Physics and Fraunhofer ILT.
To register for ICALEO 2015, visit www.icaleo.org.