“One thing will dominate my daily research routine in the near future – the automation of the industrial use of the laser as a reliable and safe tool,” says Markus Kogel-Hollacher, who won SPIE’s Prism Award at the start of the year. 

“Processes must be made more efficient while reducing complexity for the end user,” he says. “For this, sensors have to be developed that detect process states in real time, process models have to be developed that suggest the exact measures to be taken, and modules have to be developed that can implement these measures immediately.”