The 17th International Photonics and Optoelectronics Meetings (POEM 2026) was held at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) from May 8 to 10. HUST's Advanced Biomedical Imaging Facility hosted the POEM Topical Meeting of Biomedical Photonics and the fifth BRICS Workshop on Biophotonics, with nearly 200 experts, scholars, engineers, and clinicians sharing the latest advancements.

The meeting and workshop were held on May 8 at the International Medical Innovation Center of HUST, where Professor Zhu Dan, Chair of POEM Topical Meeting of Biomedical Photonics and Co-chair of BRICS Workshop on Biophotonics, delivered speeches. In her remarks, she reviewed the development history of POEM and BRICS Workshop on Biophotonics, introduced the fundamentals of the major scientific infrastructure for high-end biomedical imaging, and provided an overview of the meeting's organization and submission status.

The presentation session was chaired by Academician Valery V. Tuchin, Chair of the BRICS Workshop on Biophotonics, and Professor Qu Junle, Co-chair of the POEM Topical Meeting of Biomedical Photonics. Several experts and scholars from both domestic and international institutions delivered keynote speeches, highlighting groundbreaking achievements in biomedical imaging, optical diagnosis and therapy.

The conference received over 100 submissions from multiple countries, including China, the United States, Russia, and Brazil. Several guests delivered plenary, keynote, and invited presentations, while dozens of young scholars presented poster reports.

POEM was founded in 2008 by the Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics at HUST. Now in its 17th year, it has become a renowned high-level academic conference in optoelectronics both domestically and internationally.

The BRICS Workshop on Biophotonics was initiated in 2021 by experts and scholars in biomedical photonics from China, Russia, Brazil, India, and South Africa. It has been held five times, with this year marking the first time the workshop has been hosted in China.

Source: Office of International Medical Innovation Center, HUS