This year’s national photonics conference, Photonics 2016, was held at Bilkent University on September 23. The director of the Bilkent University Nanotechnology Research Center (NANOTAM), Prof. Ekmel Özbay, served as general chair of the conference. Prof. Özbay noted that this was the 18th meeting of the Photonics conference series, which started in 1999 and is the only national conference dedicated to the fields of optics, optoelectronics and electro-optics, now all designated under the name “photonics.”
The conference agenda consisted of invited speakers from seven research universities. The plenary talk was given by Prof. Mete Atatüre of Cambridge University. Prof. Atatüre presented his research on quantum optics, which can be utilized in exotic applications such as quantum teleportation and quantum cryptography.
The conference attracted more than 450 attendees from over 40 universities and research institutions. In addition to the general audience, representatives of 15 companies were present at the meeting venue, where they displayed products related to photonics technologies. Photonics 2016 also included a poster session, where more than 90 posters related to different photonics research areas were presented. A “best poster” competition awarded winners on the basis of the scientific and technical merit of their presentations.
According to Prof. Özbay, the meeting achieved its basic goal of bringing all of Turkey’s photonics researchers together for one day, giving them the opportunity to exchange and share their research expertise and find new networking opportunities. The next meeting, Photonics 2017, will be held at Koç University next September.