Alex A Kazemi a Boeing Associate Technical Fellow and materials scientist has worked for aerospace industry for past 20 years. He is currently focusing on the development of a new generation of optical fibers for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Alex is a world-recognized Micro Technologist with a focus on fiber optics, miniaturized interconnects, leak detection systems, fiber optic sensors for the cryogenic environment and laser micro packaging. He is regarded as the leading expert in these areas by industry and academia, including US and European aerospace agencies. He is regularly sought as an expert on fiber optics, fiber optic chemical sensors and components, throughout the Boeing Co. At BCA, he is developing a new novel state-of-the-art fiber optic flexible circuits (wall fiber) to replace copper cables for airplanes with projected weight saving of 70% per meter with cost savings of almost an order of magnitude over wire replacement expenses. At BDS, he has performed pioneering work for Boeing EELV by successfully demonstrating the world’s 1st fiber optic hydrogen leak detection system during Delta IV rocket engine test at NASA/Stennis. Before beginning his career in industry, he spent several years teaching at USC. Followed by 10 years working for telecommunications and fiber optic sensors/MEMS industry. He has authored/edited 8 books in the area of Photonics and Fiber Optics plus published over 40 papers in international journals. He has received Boeing and worldwide recognition for development of H2 leak detection sensor system for rocket engines. He has received numerous industry prizes 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.

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