2026 Photonics West Showcases Montana Photonics and Optics Industries
The Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers’ Photonics West Exhibition, held Jan. 17-22 in San Francisco, brought together over 23,000 professionals from the biomedical optics, industrial lasers, microfabrication and quantum technologies industries. Among the 1,600 exhibitors from all over the world were the Montana Photonics and Quantum Alliance and Montana State University. Attendees chose from over 4,000 presentations on topics like academia-industry partnerships and precision gravitational measurements. Source: Highlights of SPIE Photonics West.
The Montana Department of Commerce was represented by Mandy Rambo, deputy director, and Tony Brockman, officer of international relations; they met with over 20 Montana-based photonics and optics companies. MSU, MPQA and Commerce organized a welcome reception on Jan. 19 for Montana companies and organizations. On Jan. 21, a larger reception sponsored by SoFi Bank was open to anyone looking for information on Montana’s tech ecosystem; 150 people attended. Rambo and Brockman met with consulates and Montana’s largest trading partners to discuss future collaboration; they also met with the leadership of the San Francisco-based Japan External Trade Organization to thank them for their assistance organizing 2025’s governor-led trade mission to Japan.
As Montana’s photonics and optics industry grows, Commerce’s footprint at Photonics West grows with it. Commerce receives increasing interest from companies seeking to relocate to or start up in Montana, and foreign trading partners are looking into visiting Bozeman’s photonics cluster to discuss partnerships. Photonics West is an exciting opportunity to show off Montana’s advanced manufacturing capacities while building an industry that offers Montanans good-paying jobs without moving out of state.
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