For immediate release
SPIE commends
National Academies’ priority for optics and photonics in new ‘Essential Technologies’
report
BELLLINGHAM,
Washington, USA – 13 August 2012 – Optics and photonics technologies are the keys to bolstering and
expanding the economy and stimulating new solutions to challenges in energy,
healthcare, and other important areas of life, says a study released today by
the U.S. National Academies.
SPIE leaders
commended the new report, titled “Optics and Photonics, Essential Technologies
for our Nation,” as a powerful lens through which to focus progress during what
has become known as “the century of the photon.”
“The report
underscores that optics and photonics are huge contributors to the economy,”
said SPIE CEO Eugene Arthurs. “The
technologies enable applications ranging from the internet and the equipment it
is both sent across and received on, to new tests for cancers and treatments for
stroke and other brain disorders that transmit data from the body using beams
of light. Very large numbers of direct and enabled jobs for the future depend
on mastery of optics and photonics.”
Because of the
role as an enabling technology in multidisciplinary applications with
electronics, chemistry, and other fields, the exact economic impact of optics
and photonics is hard to measure, the report noted. Conservative estimates
start at more than $500 billion in revenues and 1.5 million jobs in the U.S. that
are directly related to or enabled by optics and photonics technologies. This
includes numerous applications of lasers, computer chips, solar-energy panels,
sensors, displays, and other technologies, in manufacturing, medicine, defense
and security systems, lighting, bridge and highway structural analysis, and
much more.
The report focuses specifically on opportunities
in:
·
Communications,
information processing and data storage
·
Energy
·
Health
and medicine
·
Advanced
manufacturing
·
Advanced
photonic measurements and applications
·
Strategic
materials for optics
·
Displays.
Photonics
technologies already play an essential role in these areas.
For example,
applications in medicine span from laser therapies and minimally invasive
surgeries to characterizing the human genome and performing bedside clinical
analyses, said Bruce Tromberg,
director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic at the
University of California, Irvine, and a member of the SPIE Board of Directors.
“State-of-the
art photonics research is driving remarkable advances that will make
personalized medicine a practical reality,” Tromberg said. “Light-based
technologies will help us discover more effective drugs, optimize how
individuals respond to medications while minimizing side effects, restore
vision and reverse damage to sensitive neural tissues, and provide ‘guide
stars’ that dramatically improve surgical accuracy. These advances will help
reduce health care costs by providing better methods for patient management
that minimize costly procedures and extended hospital stays.”
Tromberg
emphasized that the successful commercialization of research requires a
strategic focus such as the National Photonics Initiative proposed in the NA
report.
“Our continued
strategic investment in photonics is essential for maintaining a robust
pipeline of new discoveries that fuels both commercialization and clinical
translation,” he said.
Dennis Matthews, director of the Center for Biophotonics
Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis, also stressed
the economic impact of optics and photonics, along with the importance of new
technologies for diagnosis in the field.
"Harnessing
light for the life sciences and medicine has grown into a multi-billion-dollar
worldwide industry and a strategic thrust of government sponsored research on
every continent,” Matthews said. “Modern optical techniques now provide
microscopes that rival the resolution only thought possible using electrons or
x rays a few short years ago, enabling early detection and efficacious
treatment of disease from analyzing a drop of blood with field-portable
rapid-assay instruments."
Significant potential lies in the area of manufacturing,
the “Optics and Photonics, Essential Technologies” report notes. It underscores
the need to concentrate nationally on commercializing research to create new
industry for tomorrow’s workforce, enabling advanced manufacturing, and advancing
medical breakthroughs.
The committee’s two co-chairs, SPIE Fellows Alan Willner of the University of
Southern California and Paul McManamon
of the University of Dayton and Exciting Technologies, will give a presentation
on the report this Wednesday 15 August at SPIE Optics and Photonics in San
Diego. Following the presentation, SPIE will post slides along with links to
the digital report and a summary at www.opticsandphotonics.org.
SPIE is the international society for
optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance
light-based technologies. The Society serves nearly 225,000 constituents from
approximately 150 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books,
journals, and a digital library in support of interdisciplinary information
exchange, professional growth, and patent precedent. SPIE provided over $2.7
million in support of education and outreach programs in 2011.
###
Media Contact:
Amy Nelson, Public Relations Manager
Link to report http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12781.
Link to summary PDF
Optics and
photonics technologies are the keys to bolstering and expanding the economy and
stimulating new solutions to challenges in energy, healthcare, and other
important areas of life, says a study released today by the U.S. National
Academies. SPIE leaders commended the new report, titled “Optics and Photonics,
Essential Technologies for our Nation,” for setting priority on development of
a strategy for development and commercialization of applications enabled by the
technologies.
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