In the afternoon of October 22, 2008, a seven-people delegation of American optical engineering led by the former-president of SPIE, professor James W. Bilbro, visited our institute. Mr. Gu Qiang, the Foreign Exchange Department of Science and Technology Association of Shanghai Pudong New District, accompanied the group. Some researchers and PhD students in our institute had an informatire discussion with the delegation members in the Yizhi Hall.

   Professor Zhou Changhe from SIOM and Professor Gregory Mungas from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) introduced the profiles of their laboratories respectively. After the delegation members gave a brief introduction on themselves, an active discussion about the research and development was set off in the area of Optics and Photonics. Furthermore, possible cooperation in the future was suggested.

   The visit not only promotes the intercommunication between Chinese and American experts, but also benefits to solve the problems existing in the optical engineering research in both sides.