The National Science Foundation (NSF), through the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, has provided a grant to the 27th International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO) to enable U.S. graduate students the opportunity to attend the industry's premier laser materials processing conference on October 20-23 in Temecula, CA.

The NSF grant will be used to support the Student Paper Award at ICALEO 2008. As part of the requirement to apply for complimentary registration under the grant, students are asked to share their laser technology insight at the conference by submitting a paper. This is the second year ICALEO has received the NSF grant. Last year, 15 U.S. students attended the conference at no cost.

The goal of the NSF grant program is to encourage student innovation and participation in the world's largest conference of laser and electro-optic technology. Students will learn the basics about the interaction between a laser beam and a material, as well as how a process can be integrated and optimized for an application. It also provides an excellent networking opportunity for students, and exposes them to the career possibilities in this fast-growing field.

As described by Yongfeng Lu, ICALEO 2008 Conference Chair and organizer of the NSF grant, the technical topics and research areas covered at this year's conference align well with areas supported by the Divisions of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation at NSF.

If there are more applications than available funds, the student selection process will narrow the candidates based on the following priorities:

1) students from under-represented groups; 2) students from universities and colleges that lack funding to support graduate student attendance at
conferences; and 3) students who present high-quality papers, as determined by the conference chairs in consultation with the program committee.

Applications for the grant must be submitted to LIA by August 18, 2008 and can be downloaded at http://www.icaleo.org. The grant application must be accompanied by a complete ICALEO registration form, which is located online at http://www.icaleo.org/registration. Questions may be submitted to the LIA Conference Department at icaleo@laserinstitute.org.

The International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics(ICALEO) has a 26-year history as the conference where researchers and end-users meet to review the state-of-the-art in laser materials processing and predict where the future will lead. From its inception, ICALEO® has been devoted to the field of laser materials processing and is viewed as the premier source of technical information in the field. Each year ICALEO features areas of topical interest.