NASHUA, NH--Because 2010 is the official 50th anniversary year of the laser, it is appropriate that the 2010 Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar pay tribute to this monumental milestone: On January 25th, 2010, inventor and laser technologist Kumar Patel will present “50 Years of Lasers: An Inventor’s Perspective on High-Power IR Lasers and the Laser Marketplace” at the Seminar. “The era of high-power lasers began with my invention of the CO2 laser in 1964 at Bell Labs,” says Patel. “An explosion of technological and scientific applications followed as global laser industry revenues grew to more than $7 billion annually while I watched the growth of the CO2 laser industry, to more than $1B annually, from the sidelines with considerable satisfaction. Now, another development in high-power IR lasers is occurring and I am a participant in ushering in the era of high-power quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) with their unprecedented applications in civilian, military, and homeland security markets.”
Dr. C. Kumar N. Patel is professor of physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering at UCLA. He is also the founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Pranalytica (Santa Monica, CA), a company that is commercializing high-sensitivity, high-selectivity trace-gas sensors and high-power QCLs for commercial, homeland security, and defense markets. Patel is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. For his seminal contributions to lasers and quantum electronics, he was awarded the National Medal of Science from the President of the United States in July 1996. In the Marketplace Seminar session, Patel will describe the joys of seeing a fascinating new technology flourish into a global industry aided by two different laser systems that rapidly gained technological significance and customer acceptance. “I will also summarize the differences between the CO2 lasers and QCLs in their market penetration,” adds Patel.
Hosted by Laser Focus World, Strategies Unlimited, and Industrial Laser Solutions, the Lasers and Photonics Marketplace Seminar will be held January 25, 2010 in San Francisco in conjunction with Photonics West. The annual seminar provides the only applications-oriented review of global laser markets coupled with business and technology trends focused on the optoelectronics and photonics markets. For more information, go to www.marketplaceseminar.com.
--Gail Overton
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