Jul 7 2015
Co-located major European conferences in optical metrology and biomedical optics in Munich, Germany, 21-25 June, featured highlights including two Nobel Laureates presenting in an International Year of Light (IYL2015) session on their work to enhance the resolution of microscopes.
SPIE Optical Metrology (SPIE OM) and the SPIE/OSA European Conferences on Biomedical Optics (ECBO) speakers covered applications of light-based technologies ranging from monitoring air pollution and preserving valuable artworks and cultural sites to "seeing" through walls. The conferences were held in conjunction with Laser World of Photonics at Messe München.
Nobel Laureates Stefan Hell (Max Planck Institute Göttingen) and Eric Betzig (Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute) described the paths that led to their discoveries and how their work has greatly enhanced cellular imaging capabilities.
Hell explained now optical microscopy images cell functions in a minimally invasive manner, and Betzig discussed results obtained with super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, the development for which he, Hell, and W.E. Moerner (Stanford University) were recognized with the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.