Post-conference report 

16^th International School on Quantum Electronics (16^th ISQE)

“Laser physics and applications”

20-24 September 2010, Nessebar, Bulgaria

The 16^th issue of the International School on Quantum Electronics was traditionally organized by the Institute of Electronics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. It took place this year in hotel Marina Palace, Nessebar from 20 to 24 September 2010. The first day of the ISQE began with welcoming speeches by the organizers and welcoming remarks were presented by the head of the scientific council of Institute of Electronics- Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Prof. P. Atanasov and OSA representative Prof. S. Mayor. At the ISQE - opening Prof. A. Serafetinidis from NTUA, Greece was awarded with an honorary diploma for his long year outstanding financial support of the school.

Lecturers from 21 leading laboratories have been invited to present the resent development in five scientific topics:

1.  Laser − matter interactions
2.  Laser spectroscopy and metrology
3.  Laser remote sensing and ecology
4.  Lasers in biology and medicine
5.  Laser systems and nonlinear optics

The lectures were structured to start brief overview in the domain for the very young participants and point out the recent achievements and results in the presented laboratory. The final program contained presentations of 17 invited speakers from 16 countries. The 16^th ISQE has been visited by 84 regular participants and 10 accompanying persons from 23 countries. They have presented 81 poster contributions.

The young participants (aged under 35) was given the opportunity to participate in the “Best young scientist poster presentation” competition. The competition meets 21 candidates from 8 countries. The International Advisory- and Program- Committees have elected a jury to evaluate the quality of the posters. The organizers were very pleased to give the jury the opportunity to distribute two sets of awards offered to the school by the Optical Society of America and by the SPIE. The awards were published on the school web-site along with the nomination criteria one year before the school opening. They were as follows:

1. OSA best poster award (600$) - 1st/2nd/3rd place 250$/200$/150$
2. SPIE best poster award (500$) - 1st/2nd/3rd place 250$/150$/100$

The international jury awarded 7 instead of six posters due to the strong competition sharing the SPIE 3^rd place between two candidates.

ISQE "Laser physics and application" has been financially supported by: