Laser Institute of America’s annual meeting of academia and industry highlighted new developments in laser technology and provided a platform for global networking
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ORLANDO, FL, NOVEMBER 8, 2016 — Over 400 attendees from 20 countries gathered from October 16-20, 2016 at the Sheraton® San Diego in San Diego, CA, for the 2016 Laser Institute of America’s International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO®).
Gathering a highly engaged group of field veterans, new registrants and students, this year’s ICALEO featured more than 200 presentations, 59 peer-reviewed talks, comprehensive biophotonics coverage, and the introduction of the new ICALEO mobile app. Returning Congress General Chair Silke Pflueger was back at the helm helping compile the most highly-rated Opening Plenary presentations delivered at an ICALEO conference thus far.
“We worked so hard this year to ensure, ICALEO 2016 once again exceeded all expectations,” said Pflueger. “Our opening plenary session is a great example. From visiting Mars, to self-driving cars and a LIGO revisit, we inspired new outlooks and forged new relationships, which is what ICALEO is all about.”
Opening plenary speakers included Nina Lanza from Los Alamos National Laboratory, who linked humanity together in her discussion about the laser used aboard the Opportunity rover on Mars, and Jim McBride from Ford Motor Company, who talked about the challenges of sensing on fully autonomous vehicles. Albert Lazzarini, Deputy Director of LIGO Laboratory at California Institute of Technology, presented breaking results regarding black holes made from the first gravitational waves detected by LIGO.
This year’s ICALEO also featured a variety of laser research and experimentation revelations, from the use of lasers in emerging areas, like paint stripping and dairy, to microprocessing and several new opportunities in wearables and medicine.
Highlights of the roughly 200 presentations include:
- The writing of skin by 3D printed cells with ultrafast lasers, and insight into how creating structures on the surface of a biomaterial with lasers may eventually be able to control cell spreading
- How to improve processing speed and precision with new beam delivery and beam shaping techniques, and how to optimize later cutting processes through Time Resolved Analysis of Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Processing of CFRP
- A laser technique to modify the surface of bulk glass, called Picosecond Laser Pulses for Spatially Resolved Gloss Reduction, which demonstrated glass with dramatic gloss reduction by direct laser structuring
- A new laser-assisted doping process that allows high performance devices to be fabricated from ultra-thin films of 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs).
- The successful applications of laser ablation for next generation contactless payment cards and flexible wearable devices and the generation of flexible printed “batteries” for future bendable, wearable and portable devices
Other highlights include LIA Executive Director Peter Baker’s honor as the first recipient of the new LIA Leadership Award. Retiring next April, Baker commented on his meaningful career: “At LIA we’re saving eyesight, preventing skin damage, and helping create laser technologies, products, and services that make the world a better place.”
The 2016 Arthur L. Schawlow Award was awarded to Yongfeng Lu, the Lott Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, LIA Board Member, Past President, Treasurer and Fellow. LIA also honored Silke Pflueger and Neil Ball by elevating them to the highest level of membership as LIA Fellows.
By unanimous decision, the first place ICALEO Poster Award went to Kohei Asano and his colleagues from Osaka University, the Industrial Research Institute of Ishikawa, and Yamazaki Mazak Corporation in Japan for their poster Copper Layer Formation Produced with 100W Blue Direct Diode Laser System, while the first place Student Paper Award winner was Christian Hagenlocher from IFSW in Stuttgart, Germany, for his paper Space and Time Resolved Determination of Thermomechanical Deformation Adjacent to the Solidification Zone during Hot Crack Formation in Laser Welding.
As the 35th ICALEO ended, Neil Ball, newly-honored LIA Fellow, called the breakthrough laser event, “bar none, the best networking opportunity and the best opportunity to look forward and see what applications are on the horizon.”
Ken Dzurko, General Manager of SPI Lasers said, “LIA does a great job creating a comfortable, relaxed mood right for exchanging ideas at this one-of-a-kind event that’s really the world’s premier gathering of scientists interested in laser applications.”
ICALEO 2016 proceedings are available for sale at www.lia.org/store. For more information on ICALEO 2017, held Oct 22-26 in Atlanta, GA, visit www.lia.org/conferences/icaleo.
About LIA
The Laser Institute of America (LIA) is the professional society for laser applications and safety serving the industrial, educational, medical, research and government communities throughout the world since 1968. www.lia.org, 13501 Ingenuity Drive, Ste 128, Orlando, FL 32826, +1.407.380.1553.