2018 High Power Laser Ablation Symposium to cover topics from space junk to transdermal drug injection
The 2018 International High Power Laser Ablation (HPLA) Symposium will be held March 26-29, 2018 at the La Fonda on the Plaza Hotel in Santa Fe, NM. The 2018 event, primarily biennial, will be the twelfth meeting over a space of 20 years, and offers exceptional learning and networking opportunities for researchers in the laser ablation and beamed energy propulsion fields.
The Symposium will feature new topics relevant to today’s challenges including biological applications, femtosecond repetitive action on materials, laser direct writing, laser induced shock applications, laser materials interactions in a liquid environment, laser modification of surface microstructure and morphology, MAPLE and materials processing, new results in high power lasers and their applications, and next-generation beamed energy propulsion.
In addition, the Symposium will include a panel on the business side of high power laser applications, and topics such as plasmonics and metamaterials, promising new laser and optical technologies, space debris removal and asteroid impact mitigation strategies, theory and simulation, thermal and mechanical coupling for ultrashort pulses, ultrafast materials processing, ultrashort pulse effects, and ultrashort high intensity lasers.
Related: Laser ablation and directed energy meet in New Mexico (report on the 2016 HPLA Symposium)
Related: Laser ablation and beamed energy propulsion in one meeting (report on the 2014 HPLA Symposium)
A majority of the speakers will come to Santa Fe from outside the U.S., including Russia, France, the UK, Germany, Ukraine, Japan, Australia, and China. Keynote speakers for the 2018 event include Thomas Lippert from the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland; Tomas Mocek from the HiLASE Center, Czech Republic; and Mark Neice from the Directed Energy Professional Society, United States of America.
Dr. Claude Phipps, Chair of the HPLA Symposium, left Los Alamos and organized the first HPLA in 1998. The event is produced by Blue52 Productions, a Traverse City, MI technical event production company. For more information or to register for the event and special workshops, please visit, https://www.usasymposium.com/hpla/default.php or contact Erin Foster at [email protected].
Conard Holton | Editor at Large
Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.