Light-based technologies are constantly being developed and improved to enable and enhance life, and SPIE Photonics West 2016, 13-18 February in San Francisco, will feature the latest applications enabled by light in such areas as biomedical diagnostics and therapies, nanophotonics, optical communications, and laser manufacturing.

Technical conferences will cover biomedical optics, optoelectronics, and laser research under the well-established symposia BiOS, OPTO, and LASE. Three virtual symposia will allow attendees to track presentations in green photonics, translational research, and 3D printing.

Plenary sessions will include prominent speakers, including SPIE Fellow Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop of University of Queensland (Australia) in the nano/biophotonics plenary. She will discuss laser micromanipulation and trapping with optical tweezers in a talk entitled “Light Moves Life.”

SPIE Photonics West 2016 will also feature two free exhibitions at the Moscone Center:

• The BiOS Expo, 13-14 February, features biomedical optics and photonics technologies such as spectroscopic/microscopic imaging, therapeutic lasers, biosensors, molecular imaging, and nano/biophotonic instrumentation.
• The Photonics West Exhibition, 16-18 February, will have more than 1250 companies showing devices, components, lasers, and systems for many applications including photonics manufacturing.