SPIE Remote Sensing, Security Conferences to Draw World Experts to Berlin

Highlights in the Security+Defence sessions include plenary talks by MinRat Rainer Krug of the German Federal Ministry of Defence and by Maurus Tacke, Director of the FGAN-FOM Research Institute for Optronics and Pattern Recognition.

Plenary speakers in Remote Sensing sessions will be Thomas Reiter of the German Aerospace Centre and Richard Anthes, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

More than 700 participants from around world are expected to attend the co-located events. Registrants may attend sessions in either SPIE Security+Defence or SPIE Remote Sensing, each organized into eight topical conferences.

SPIE Security+Defence conferences cover infrared systems, imaging technologies, biological and chemical sensing, and other emerging technologies. David Titterton of the UK Defence, Science and Technology Lab is Symposium Chair, and Reinhard Ebert of the FGAN-FOM Research Institute for Optronics and Pattern Recognition is Symposium Co-Chair. OPTHER and EMRSDTC (Electro Magnetic Remote Sensing Defence Technology Centre) are Cooperating Organisations.

Enabling technologies and applications for detection, imaging, lasers, and supporting components and devices will be displayed by nearly 40 companies at the SPIE Security+Defence exhibition running 1 and 2 September. There is no charge for registration to attend the exhibition.

SPIE Remote Sensing covers environmental monitoring, next-generation satellites, SAR image analysis, LADAR technologies, signal processing, adaptive optics, and related topics. The sessions compose Europe's largest international forum on remote sensing. Steven Neeck of NASA is Symposium Chair and Karin Stein of FGAN-FOM Research Institute for Optronics and Pattern Recognition is Symposium Co-Chair. Conferences on Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring, GIS Applications, and Geology and on Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology have each drawn a large number of presenters this year. Cooperating Organisations are EOS (European Optical Society), EARSC (European Association of Remote Sensing Companies), DGPF, and the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society.

Conference attendees may register to tour labs at the nearby Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute for Telecommunications. The tour will include live demonstrations of defence technologies such as handheld terahertz spectroscopy and 3D imaging without glasses. Advance registration for the lab tour is required.

The 2008 Rudolf Kingslake Medal and Prize will be awarded to Milan Maksimovic, Manfred Hammer, and E. W. C. (Brenny) van Groesen of the Univ. of Twente, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, for their paper titled "Coupled optical defect microcavities in one-dimensional photonic bandgap structures and quasi-normal modes" published in the November 2008 issue of Optical Engineering

For information, see the websites for SPIE Remote Sensing and SPIE Defence+Security.

SPIE is the International Society for Optics and Photonics, founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. Serving more than 188,000 constituents from 138 countries, the Society advances emerging technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, patent precedent, and career and professional growth. SPIE annually organises and sponsors approximately 25 major technical forums, exhibitions, and education programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific. In 2008, the Society provided more than $1.9 million in support of scholarships, grants, and other education programs around the world. For more information, visit SPIE.org.