SPIE Innovation Summit to focus on solar, biophotonics, and solid-state lighting

September 17, 2008--Solar, biophotonics, and next-generation lighting technology experts with success in leveraging invention and intellectual property into profit will provide insights at a Photonics Innovation Summit sponsored by SPIE (Bellingham, WA) this fall. The SPIE Photonics Innovation Summit will be held at the San Francisco, CA, Airport Marriott Hotel on 6 November.

"This conference will do something special in addressing the innovation process as applied to solid-state lighting, biophotonics, and solar energy," said Event Chair Steve Eglash, president and CEO of Cyrium Technologies. "Several of the most successful innovators will discuss how creativity and persistence led to their revolutionary contributions." The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and University of California Berkeley (UCB) Haas Business School and Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation are participating as cooperating organizations.

Keynote talks will be given by Henry Chesbrough, author of Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology and Executive Director of the Center of Open Innovation at the Institute of Management, Innovation and Organization Management of Technology Program, UCB, John Kao, author of Innovation Nation, chosen by Business Week as one of the ten best books of 2007, and chairman and CEO of Kao and Co., and Joseph Goodman, William Ayer Professor, Emeritus at Stanford University, speaking on "Transfer of University Innovation to Industry: Paths and Pitfalls."

Break-out sessions focus on the role of technological innovation in the three named important and rapidly expanding markets. And a session on "Paths to Funding" will feature Jennifer Ernst of PARC, John Lushelsky of the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Solar Technology Program, and Craig Cornelius of Hudson Clean Energy Partners. They will give their perspectives on working with multinational corporations in converting advanced research into high-value business opportunities, the DoE Solar Program, driving innovation through industry partnerships, and growth-stage financing for equipment manufacturers in the renewables sector.

For more information, visit spie.org/innovation.