Wales' First Minister and Assembly Member Rhodri Morgan will open the conferences with a talk on the region's thriving private- and public-sector optics and photonics community.

The area's 90-plus companies collectively are responsible for over 717 pounds million a year in revenues, and Wales-based businesses and consortia will receive a sizeable portion of the UK Ministry of Defence's 7.5 billion pounds capital budget for 2007-2008.

The Welsh Opto-Electronics Forum, a consortium of Welsh companies, university research groups, users, and support organisations is another important contributor to the industry. The forum's facility OpTIC (Opto-electronics Technology and Incubation Centre) supports start-up business activities, and the forum organizes seminars and other training and communication activities.

Closer collaboration
Co-locating the Remote Sensing and Security and Defence events enables closer collaboration between the two communities. Participants in either programme will have access to the oral and poster presentations in both.

An exhibition featuring applications and technology for both symposia will include 20 companies showing products detectors, sensors, lasers, and imaging equipment for the security and defence community along with products for the remote sensing audience.

Plenary presentations will be given by:

- Frances Saunders, CEO of the UK Defence Science and Technology Lab., on "Science on the Front Line and on the Home Front,"

- Jim Ironside, Chief Scientist of General Dynamics UK Ltd., on "Reconciling the Interests of Industry and Government in Research and Development," and

- Waleed Abdalati, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr., on "The Secrets of Polar Change through the Lens of Remote Sensing."

SPIE Europe Remote Sensing
Now in its 15th year, SPIE Europe Remote Sensing is the largest annual meeting in Europe focused on remote sensing. This event offers comprehensive coverage of the fast-growing industry, including next-generation satellites, SAR image analysis, LIDAR technologies and more.

The symposium chairs are Guido D'Urso, Universit� degli Napoli Federico II, and Steven P. Neeck, NASA Headquarters.

Ten conferences will cover the latest technologies and applications for sensor technologies, sensing of the environment, and signal and image processing. Conference topics include Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere XIII, SAR Image Analysis, Modeling, and Techniques, Remote Sensing for Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Hydrology X, and Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites XII.

SPIE Europe Security and Defence
SPIE Europe Security and Defence will draw more than 400 attendees, including the top researchers and leaders from industry, academia, and the military.

Areas of focus range from biological and chemical sensing, to unmanned/unattended sensors, to imaging and display technologies to optical materials. David Titterton, Defence Science and Technology Lab, is the symposium chair.

The symposium features eight conferences that cover Technologies for Optical Countermeasures V, Optically Based Biological and Chemical Detection for Defence IV, Millimetre Wave and Terahertz Sensors and Technology, and Unmanned/Unattended Sensors and Sensor Networks V.

Related Links
The latest in Military Technology for the 21st century at SpaceWar.com

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