Where Optics Industry and Science Meet

Participants of the DGaO annual meeting 2025 in Stuttgart.

© DGaO

In June last year, the 126th Annual Conference of the German Society for Applied Optics (DGAO) was held once again successfully. For four days, scientists from academia and industry exchanged ideas on current topics in optical metrology, optics simulation and design, and new manufacturing technologies.

For the first time in the more than 100-year history of the DGAO, the annual conference was held at the University of Stuttgart. The extensive program comprised 20 sessions with 80 short presentations on current topics in applied optics, seven keynote lectures and 37 poster contributions.

The core topics of the conference were reflected in the keynote speeches. In the opening lecture, Prof. Reichelt presented research results relating to single shot measurement methods for the analysis of dynamic processes. The Optical Design session opened with the keynote lecture by Prof. Dr. Herbert Gross on the simulation and tolerancing of optical systems with free-form surfaces, which highlighted the particular challenges in the development and quality assurance of free-form optics. Prof. Dr. Colin Sheppard (UNSW Sydney) reported on image scanning microscopy and presented innovative approaches to improving resolution in confocal microscopy through the use of detector arrays. Simon Hartel (Landshut University of Applied Sciences) gave a fascinating insight into the possibilities of geometric algebra for system optimization, exemplified by light sectioning systems.