...

Prof Gong offered his congratulations to plenary speaker Professor Gerard Mourou who was recently awarded the Nobel prize in physics.  He continued commenting that Photonics Asia has become the leading conference in this dynamic region of the world on photonics technologies bringing together international researchers and scientists to share their latest work.  Prof Gong talked about the strong relationship between the COS and SPIE and his hope was to see that grow in the future. 

Professor Maryellen Giger welcomed the audience and provided an overview of SPIE making note of breadth of technologies covered by the society and the advocacy work being performed on behalf of the community that amounts to more than $4million worth of support. Professor Giger also congratulated Professor Mourou on his Nobel prize and noted the significant involvement Nobel prize winners have had with SPIE over the past few decades.  

A special COS Award was presented to Professor Gerard Mourou recognizing his contributions and congratulating him on receiving the Nobel prize. Pierre Lomonde from the French Embassy in Beijing added his welcome to the audience and also congratulated Professor Mourou.

The opening ceremony continued with the 2018 COS student and young researcher awards announced by Prof Liu.  Lastly the new 2018 COS Fellows were introduced including SPIE retired CEO, Eugene Arthurs. Eugene was invited to the stage and closed the ceremony with remarks about the impact optics and photonics will have on mankind noting that our ability to successfully leverage these technologies will require productive partnerships between the global community and close cooperation between researchers. He noted that there are many great opportunities in photonics for young researchers.