Mark Your Calendar!

By Betsy Marone

Laser Institute of America (LIA) will hold its biennial International Laser Safety Conference (ILSC^®) from Mar. 20-23, 2017. At the Sheraton^® Atlanta Airport, LIA will gather laser safety experts from around the globe to offer a thorough and comprehensive four-day conference for a variety of laser industry members. From laser safety officers and nurses, to safety product manufacturers and laser physicists, attendees will not only gain invaluable information from sessions, but will also have the opportunity to network with others and take part in this community of laser safety experts.

In 2017, ILSC – the premiere conference in the field of laser safety – will be led by Conference General Chair John O’Hagan of the Health Protection Agency. The 2017 program will feature knowledgeable speakers and presenters in the plenary session, the poster presentation gallery, the Laser Safety Scientific Sessions (LSSS), the Medical Practical Applications Seminar (MPAS) and the Technical Practical Applications Seminar (TPAS). The MPAS will be co-chaired by Kay Ball, Vangie Dennis, Patti Owens and Leslie Pollard.

Co-chaired by Eddie Ciprazo and Jamie King, the focus of TPAS in 2017 will be a return to the basics. “For the Laser Safety Officer (LSO) who is just starting out, who serves as a collateral duty, or even as a seasoned LSO with years of experience, there is something for everyone,” explains King. “From basic optics to cutting edge technologies, and everything in between, it’s here.”

Karl Schulmeister, Chair for LSSS, assures that ILSC will continue to cover the subject matter that attendees have found most helpful over the years. Among the planned topics are laser product safety, medical laser safety, and bioeffects. The latter will expand upon the interactions between lasers and tissues, discussing injury thresholds for the varying tissues of the eye and skin. Other sessions will focus on eyewear, outdoor lasers, high power lasers and materials processing. Broadband incoherent radiation will also be featured, as these lighting and other non-laser optical radiation sources have become interwoven with laser safety in recent years.

The ILSC 2017 Call for Papers is open for submissions. Authors are invited to submit their abstracts for oral and poster presentations by Oct. 6, 2016. Papers should contain original, recent and unpublished results of application research, development or implementation. To submit your abstract, visit www.lia.org/conferences/ilsc/abstract_submission.

“The authors of these submitted papers make up this scientific conference,” states Schulmeister. “The quality of the conference is determined by the quality of the submitted papers as oral presentations, posters and the respective proceedings papers, which are valued sources of information not only for the participants at the conference, but as general references.”

For more information on ILSC 2017, visit www.lia.org /ilsc.