Dr. Alex Kazemi a world recognized Micro Technologist and materials scientist is focusing on development of fiber optics, miniaturized interconnects, fiber optic sensors, and micro packaging of laser components for aerospace applications. He is Boeing Associate Technical Fellow and has worked for Boeing for 22 years. He is regarded as the leading expert in above areas by industry and academia, including US and European aerospace agencies. He has authored/edited 8 books and one text book chapter in the area of Photonics, Lasers, Sensors, Fiber Optics, Micro and Nano Technologies, plus published over 45 papers in International Journals and hundreds of presentations throughout of conferences and technical communities. His research publications have received 900 Read Milestone. He has received great many industrial awards, recognitions and patents.

Dr. Michelle R. Stem has a Ph.D. in materials science engineering, MBA in management and B.S. in chemistry. Post-doc research and continued work as Senior Materials Researcher at Complete Consulting Services, LLC. Dr. Stem applies interdisciplinary expertise through multiscale analysis, computational modeling and laboratory synthesis to study extremely rare inorganic, complex and semi-conductor (ICS) materials. Dr. Stem researches ICS structural and property variations to discover and ultimately engineer new methods, applications, models, materials and metamaterials with the goal of controlling photonic, phononic, optoelectronic, band gap and other properties. In addition, Dr. Stem's research develops materials that save energy (e.g. power differentials for photonic band gap versus electronic materials) and finds alternatives to using up rare resources.

Dist. Prof. Dr. Robert R. Alfano, Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering, Departments of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Director and founder , CUNY Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL), The City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave, Room MR 201, New York, NY 10031 Robert Alfano is an Italian-American experimental physicist. He is a Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering at the City College and Graduate School of New York of the City University of New York, where he is also the founding Director of the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (1982). He is a pioneer in the fields of Biomedical Imaging and Spectroscopy, Ultrafast lasers and optics, tunable lasers, semiconductor materials and devices, optical materials, biophysics, nonlinear optics and photonics; he has also worked extensively in nanotechnology and coherent backscattering. His discovery of the white-light supercontinuum laser is at the root of optical coherence tomography, which is breaking barriers in ophthalmology, cardiology, and oral cancer detection (see "Better resolution with multibeam OCT," page 28) among other applications. He initiated the field known now as Optical Biopsy He recently calculated he has brought in $62 million worth of funding to CUNY during his career, averaging $1.7 million per year. He states that he has accomplished this feat by "hitting the pavement"; he developed a habit of aggressively reaching out to funding partners and getting them interested in his work. Alfano has made discoveries that have furthered biomedical optics, in addition to fields such as optical communications, solid-state physics, and metrology. Alfano has an outstanding track record for achievements regarding the development of biomedical instruments. His contributions to photonics are documented in more than 700 research articles, 102 patents, several edited volumes and conference proceedings, and well over 10,000 citations. He holds 45 patents and published over 230 articles in the biomedical optics area alone. His discovery of the white-light supercontinuum laser is at the root of optical coherence tomography, which is breaking barriers in ophthalmology, cardiology, and oral cancer detection (see "Better resolution with multibeam OCT," page 28) among other applications. Alfano has trained and mentored over 52 PhD candidates and 50 post-doctoral students. For the past ten years, he has trained innumerable high school students in hands on photonics.

Mahmoud Fallahi is a professor in the college of optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Toulouse and LAAS-CNRS, in 1988. He joined the National Research Council of Canada in 1989 and became a member of technical staff as a Research Scientist during 1992-1995. He joined the University of Arizona as an Assistant professor in 1995. His recent research interests are in high power semiconductor lasers, tunable sources, nonlinear frequency generation, photonic integrated circuits, micro/nanofabrication, and hybrid organic-inorganic components for heterogeneous integration. He has over 200 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, international conference proceedings and invited talks. He has authored or co-authored several book chapters, patents and invention disclosures. He has served as Conference Chair and Program Committee member in several international conferences in the field of semiconductor lasers and integrated optics. He is also the co-founder of TPhotonics Inc. During August 2014 –Aug. 2017 he has been with the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a Program Director of the photonics program in the ECCS Division of Engineering Directorate, promoting and managing translational research programs in the field of optics and photonics.

Nicolas Javahiraly is an associate professor in physics at the University of Strasbourg. He did his PhD in Photonics at the same university on fiber optic sensors. After a post-doc at Harvard University on the interaction between ultra-short laser pulses and matter, he worked as a project manager and expert in the Sagem Defense group in Paris. He joined the University of Strasbourg in 2007 and is currently working on nano-optical sensors and plasmonics for various applications such as gas detection, pollutants detection and photoconversion systems for example.

Dr. Ed Mendoza leads the technology and business strategy vision for Redondo Optics, with over thirty years of experience as a senior executive, strategic business development, and technology innovation in fast-growth star-up companies focus on emerging markets in aviation & aerospace, smart structures, renewable energy, life sciences, oil & gas, and defense and security. Ed received his Ph.D. from the City University of New York. Currently works in fields ranging from fiber optics sensors, silicon photonics, smart wearable fabrics, optical metrology, remote sensing, Lab-on-Chip opto-fluidics, diffractive and refractive optics, and nanomaterials

Fu Yuegnag Dean of the school of opto-electronics Engineering,Changchun University of Science and Technology, China. His research interest is Spectral imaging,Polarization imaging and bioinspired optics. He has published more than 90 papers and was granted with 20 patents. He is the Director of the Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Measurement and Optical Information Transmission Technology Ministry of Education and Vice-Chairman of the Committee for Standardization of Photoelectric Measurement (TC487).

Boris Gramatikov obtained his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Biomedical Engineering in Germany, and his Ph.D. in Bulgaria. He has completed a number of postdoctoral studies in Germany, Italy and the United States. He joined the faculty of the Biomedical Engineering Department of The Johns Hopkins University in 1996, and has been working in the Laboratory of Ophthalmic Instrumentation Development at The Wilmer Eye Institute since 2000. His areas of expertise include electronics, optoelectronics, computers, computer modeling, signal/image processing, data analysis, instrumentation design, biophotonics, ophthalmic and biomedical optics, polarization optics, all applied to the development of diagnostic methods and devices for ophthalmology and vision research. His team has developed a series of pediatric vision screeners. He has over 120 publications, 41 of which in high-impact peer-reviewed journals. He serves as a reviewer and editorial board member with a number of technical and medical journals

BIOGRAPHY Awards Named one of Florida's five most influential scientists, Florida Trend magazine, November 2004. Postdoctoral Fellow, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Florida Institute of Technology, 1997-1998 Patents International Patent: Murshid Syed and Rumpf Raymond “Fiber Optic Fabry-Perot interferometers and associated methods” European Patent Office June, 2006. US Patents: Murshid S., and Lovell G., "All-optical spatial domain multiplexing de-multiplexer" United States Patent No. 9,529,147, December 27, 2016. Murshid S., and Finch M., "Omnidirectional free space optical communications receiver" United States Patent No. 9,515,729, December 6, 2016. Murshid S., and Khayrattee A., "Orbital angular momentum in spatially multiplexed optical fiber communications" United States Patent No. 8,396,371, March 12, 2013. Murshid S., “Array of concentric CMOS photodiodes for detection and de-multiplexing of spatially modulated optical channels” United States Patent No. 8,278,728, October 2, 2012 Murshid S., et al “Methods and apparatus for spatial multiplexing in optical communication”. (7,639,909) December 2009. Murshid S., Grossman B., Narakorn P., “Methods and apparatus for spatial domain multiplexing in optical fiber communications”. (7,174,067). February 06, 2007. Rumpf R and Murshid Syed, “Fiber Optic Fabry-Perot interferometers and associated methods”. (6,886,365), also awarded International patent on a similar invention. May 03, 2005. Murshid Syed H., “Fiber optic level detection system.”(6,801,678) October 05, 2004.

Dr. Lingyan Shi’s pioneering work in developing and applying novel optical techniques has led to a number of significant breakthroughs in biophotonics with major implications for the fields of neuroscience and cancer research and is allowing us to visualize the mechanisms underlying everyday processes and disease. One of Dr. Shi’s most significant discoveries has been the development of a new experimental technique that combines heavy water labeling and a relatively new imaging method, stimulated Raman scattering microscopy, to probe the metabolic activities of living tissues at subcellular resolution in situ. This discovery facilitates the visualization of tumor boundaries, embryonic development, and even aging in biological tissue. Another significant scientific contribution is her discovery of the “Golden Optical Window” – a unique band of infrared wavelengths that can penetrate deeper into biological tissues than other wavelengths of light during imaging, thereby dramatically increasing the imaging depth possible in brain tissue by as much as 50%. In addition, Dr. Shi has developed an early-detection spectral technique that could provide doctors with a tool for the early-stage detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

Roger S. Reiss