The International Conference on Lasers and Applications, Lasers 'XX was an annual conference organized by the former Society for Optical and Quantum Electronics. The conference, known in short by ''Lasers 'XX'' (where XX refers to the particular year), was held at various locations in The United States from 1978 to 2000. The emphasis of these conferences was laser development and in particular the development of high-power lasers. The papers delivered at these conferences were published in a series of hard-bound volumes known as ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers 'XX'' () by STS Press. In total, more than 20 book proceedings were published. A particular feature of these conferences was the organization of high-power panel discussions on timely topics of interest, such as the role of lasers in directed energy and the

Strategic Defense Initiative The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the "''Star Wars'' program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic ...

(SDI), during the presidency of

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

.C. P. Wang, ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers '85'' (STS Press, McLean, VA, 1986).F. J. Duarte, ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers '87'' (STS Press, Mc Lean, VA, 1988). Noted physicists, including

Edward Teller Edward Teller ( hu, Teller Ede; January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb" (see the Teller–Ulam design), although he did not care fo ...

and

Arthur Kantrowitz Arthur Robert Kantrowitz (October 20, 1913 – November 29, 2008) was an American scientist, engineer, and educator. Kantrowitz grew up in The Bronx and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School.Overbye, Dennis"Arthur R. Kantrowitz, Whose ...

, participated in these discussions. Towards the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

this conference enjoyed the participation of numerous Soviet laser physicists, including prominent authors such as

Alexander Prokhorov Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Про́хоров; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Soviet-Russian physicist known ...

and

Nikolay Basov Nikolay Gennadiyevich Basov (russian: Никола́й Генна́диевич Ба́сов; 14 December 1922 – 1 July 2001) was a Soviet physicist and educator. For his fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics that led to the deve ...

. F. J. Duarte
''Laser Physicist'' (Optics Journal, New York, 2012).
/ref> Schwinger

A partial list of plenary and invited speakers include (in chronological order): * Amnon Yariv, *

John Madey John M. J. Madey (28 February 1943 - 5 July 2016) was a professor of Physics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, a former director of the Free Electron Laser Laboratory at Duke University, and formerly a professor (research) at Stanford Univers ...

, * Charles K. Rhodes, *

Kumar Patel Chandra Kumar Naranbhai Patel (born 2 July 1938) is an electrical engineer. He developed the carbon dioxide laser in 1963; it is now widely used in industry for cutting and engraving a wide range of materials like plastic and wood. Because th ...

, *

Robert Alfano 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 Direc ...

, *

Marlan Scully Marlan Orvil Scully (born August 3, 1939) is an American physicist best known for his work in theoretical quantum optics. He is a professor at Texas A&M University and Princeton University. Additionally, in 2012 he developed a lab at the Baylor ...

, *

Colin Webb Colin Edward Webb (born 9 December 1937) is a British physicist and former professor at the University of Oxford, specialising in lasers. Education Webb was educated at the University of Nottingham (BSc) and Oriel College, Oxford (DPhil). C ...

, * Charles A. Brau, * David C. Hanna,R. C. Sze and F. J. Duarte, ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers '88'' (STS Press, McLean, VA, 1989). *

Serge Haroche Serge Haroche (born 11 September 1944) is a French-Moroccan physicist who was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physics jointly with David J. Wineland for "ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual q ...

, *

Julian Schwinger Julian Seymour Schwinger (; February 12, 1918 – July 16, 1994) was a Nobel Prize winning American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work on quantum electrodynamics (QED), in particular for developing a relativistically invariant ...

, * William T. Silfvast, *

S. E. Harris Stephen Ernest Harris (born November 29, 1936) is an American physicist known for his contributions to electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), modulation of single photons, and x-ray emission. In a diverse career, he has collaborated wi ...

,F. J. Duarte and D. G. Harris, ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers '91'' (STS Press, McLean, VA, 1992). * L. M. Narducci, *

Willis Lamb Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. (; July 12, 1913 – May 15, 2008) was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955 "for his discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum." The Nobel Committee that year awarded hal ...

, *

Norman F. Ramsey Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. (August 27, 1915 – November 4, 2011) was an American physicist who was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics, for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method, which had important applications in the const ...

,V. J. Corcoran, ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers '93'' (STS Press, McLean, VA, 1994). * F. J. Duarte,V. J. Corcoran, ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Lasers '95'' (STS Press, McLean, VA, 1996). *

Theodor W. Hänsch Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch (; born 30 October 1941) is a German physicist. He received one-third of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics for "contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb t ...

, *

Carl E. Wieman Carl Edwin Wieman (born March 26, 1951) is an American physicist and educationist at Stanford University, and currently the A.D White Professor at Large at Cornell University. In 1995, while at the University of Colorado Boulder, he and Eric All ...

, * David J. Wineland, * Anthony E. Siegman, Besides the emphasis on high-power lasers and panel discussions on this subject, many scientific disclosures made at these conferences went on to contribute to, or to inspire, further research in a variety of fields including: * X-ray laser sources * Tunable solid state lasers * Tm:YAG lasers * Rare gas halide lasers * Solid-state organic lasers * Laser dye photostability * Laser crystals * Lasing without population inversion * Electromagnetically induced transparency * Optics communications * Digital imaging * Holography * Faraday filters * Fiber fusesR. Kashyap, The fiber fuse - from a curious effect to a critical issue: a 25th year perspective, ''Optics Express'' 21, 6422-6441 (2013). From ''Lasers '88'' to ''Lasers '96'', the prestigious

Einstein Prize for Laser Science The Einstein Prize for Laser Science was a recognition awarded by the former Society for Optical and Quantum Electronics and sponsored by the Eastman Kodak Company. The prize, awarded in the 1988–1999 period, consisted of a 3-inch brass meda ...

was awarded.

References

{{reflist

External links: conference photographs

Edward Teller gives press conference at ''Lasers'87''
including, right to left,

John L. Hall John Lewis "Jan" Hall (born August 21, 1934) is an American physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics. He shared the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with Theodor W. Hänsch and Roy Glauber for his work in precision spectroscopy. Biography Born ...

, and F. J. Duarte.
Group photograph at ''Lasers'93''
including (right to left)

, and F. J. Duarte.
Group photograph at ''Lasers'95''
including (right to left)

, and F. J. Duarte. Academic conferences Cold War Lasers Laser awards and associations Missile defense Science events Soviet Union–United States relations