IPF 2010 wrap-up

IPF 2010 The 2010 Industrial Physics Forum (IPF), held in conjunction with the joint meeting of the Optical Society of America and the American Physical Society, has ended. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the laser’s invention, the two-day IPF gathering had as its theme the usefulness of lasers in industrial research; OSA, frontiers in optics; and APS, laser science.

Most of the attendees agreed that holding the IPF gathering within the larger scientific venue was advantageous. There were plenty of great talks to attend; those held by the IPF were standing room only. Graduate students were crowding in at the doors for almost every presentation, a good sign that the speaker and topic were of pressing interest.

The IPF talks were divided into four sessions. One was devoted to biomedical applications, including a new laser system to perform cataract surgery, tabletop lasers that deliver beams normally found only at much larger free-electron-laser facilities, lasers that speed up DNA sequencing , and optical coherence tomography that delivers much sharper biomedical images.

Another centered on lasers that are used in environmental research, including lidar to map Earth’s resources, quantum cascade lasers in sensors , lasers to measure product emissions, and lasers for remote sensing of Earth and other planets . The third session highlighted lasers used in metrology for applications such as timekeeping, fixing microcircuits, measuring position during lens polishing, and redefining the kilogram .

The fourth session was devoted to four general areas of research at the forefront of physics that might not necessarily have an immediate bearing on industrial applications. They were graphene , which was the subject of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics; the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope , which currently provides the best view of the sky at gamma-ray wavelengths; the Large Hadron Collider , which just passed a milestone for beam luminosity; and quantum entanglement , at the heart of what will eventually be quantum computing.

The forums normally occur at 12-month intervals, but the next one will take place only 6 months from now. It will be convened at the March APS Meeting in Dallas, and the theme will be the 100th anniversary of the discovery of superconductivity.

Phil Schewe

All the talks at IPF 2010 were recorded and are now available on video .