One more indicator that COVID is moving from pandemic to endemic: I attended Photonics West in San Francisco in person for the first time since 2020. With more than 22,000 attendees and north of 1,400 exhibitors it felt - almost - like pre-pandemic times.
As in 2020 I couldn't stay with family or friends (though that may change again in 2024!), but as I was part of the MKS contingent, I got to a room at the Marriott Marquis just a few minutes from Moscone Center which turned out to be exceedingly convenient.
Program was packed as usual, and I didn't get around to taking a lot of pictures. After checking into the conference and attending the University of Rochester Alumni reception Sunday evening at the Marquis, Monday followed with a full day of talks from morning to evening, followed by the PW reception in the evening. SPIE hired a professional event manager for these and other occasions several years ago and since then they have been transformed into remarkable occasions. This year was Star Wars themed complete with a (small) light saber for every attendee, actors in full costumes and backgrounds for photo ops and a live band riffing off Star Wars themed music all evening. You can see Rey and Chewbacca in the background here.
Tuesday was another day packed with talks from morning to late afternoon, a working lunch with the LASE conference chairs - which gave me an interesting glimpse deeper into the structure and organization behind LASE - and the evening was occupied by the poster session, where I had to judge student posters. Through an interesting confluence of effects that I won't go in here, every single poster I had to judge was presented by a Japanese student. This created a rocky start, but translation apps on our phones ultimately came to the rescue.
Wednesday - you guessed it - more talks. After a working lunch with one of my academic collaborators, I headed to the student reception in the afternoon sponsored by MKS. (Can you spot me in the picture?) And Thorlabs brought 'Paws for a Break' to Photonics West; given Thorlab's logo this is doubly genius! We finished the day with the announcement of the best student talk and best student poster.
On Thursday, after my by now almost traditional PW Thursday morning coffee with Bob, the Director of Science & Technology for SPIE (and my former boss), I finally got to walk through the exhibition for the rest of the day, check out what's new, forge some new connections, and catch up with a lot of people whom I hadn't run into during the technical sessions and hadn't seen in years. Seeing my old friends from Rochester was a particular treat, of course:
