Plenary Event
Hot Topics III
16 April 2026 • 09:00 - 10:35 CEST | Auditorium Erasme (Niveau/Level 0)
9:00 – 9:05 hrs CEST
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Speaker Introduction
9:05 - 9:50 hrs CEST
Volumetric printing by reverse tomography: a new paradigm in additive manufacturing
Volumetric printing by reverse tomography-commonly referred to as tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing (TVAM), or simply VAM-is a layerless 3D printing approach that creates solid objects by projecting sequences of light patterns into a rotating photosensitive resin. The cumulative energy deposition leads to localized photopolymerization, enabling the fabrication of complex 3D structures within seconds.
Since its first demonstration in 2019, TVAM has rapidly gained attention and has been extended to a wide range of materials, including polymers, hydrogels, ceramics, metals, and glass. Despite these advances, several fundamental challenges remain: expanding the achievable build volume, improving resolution toward that of two-photon polymerization, and extending the method to non-transparent or composite resins.
Beyond these technical hurdles, TVAM also opens unique opportunities not accessible to traditional additive manufacturing techniques—for example, the ability to fabricate directly around existing structures. This talk will review the progress of the field, highlight key developments, and explore emerging strategies to address current limitations while pointing toward new application domains.
Christophe Moser graduated in physics from EPFL in 1993 and began his career as an engineer at Hexagon Metrology in Switzerland. He earned his PhD in 2000 in optical information processing from the California Institute of Technology. He co-founded and served as CEO of Ondax, Inc. in Monrovia, California, a company later acquired by Coherent.
In 2010, he returned to EPFL, where he is now Full Professor and Director of the Microengineering Section. His research interests include volumetric 3D printing, ultra compact endoscopy using multimode fibers, and optical computing.
He co-founded Composyt Light Lab in 2014, a startup in the field of head-worn displays (acquired by Intel in 2015), and is also co-founder of EarlySight SA (2019), Readily3D SA (2020), and Modendo (2021). He is the author or co-author of more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and holds over 80 patents.
9:50 - 10:35 hrs CEST
From glass to gas: advances, applications and new challenges in hollow core fibre technology
Hollow core fibres (HCFs) guide light through a gas-filled core rather than solid glass and offer unique optical properties and transformative potential. Recent breakthroughs have reduced losses to levels below those of conventional silica fibres across a broad spectrum—from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared. While these advances were primarily driven by applications in high-capacity data transmission, the capabilities of HCFs extend far beyond communications. They enable enhanced light–matter interactions, exceptional radiation hardness and low non-linearity for sensing applications such as gas detection and precision gyroscopes. There is even the prospect of light transmission in vacuum, pushing towards ultimate waveguide performance. As fibre designs improve, controlling the internal gas composition and pressure becomes critical, driving progress in gas dynamics modelling, advanced characterisation, and post-processing techniques. This talk will explore recent progress in HCF technology, the pivotal role of gas in transmission, and the opportunities and challenges of guiding light through a hollow core.
Natalie Wheeler is a Professor of Photonics in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton in the U.K. She has more than 18 years research experience in the area of hollow core optical fibres (HCFs). Her research has spanned across HCF design, fabrication and characterisation and into a wide range of applications including data transmission, high power delivery, fibre-based sensing and non-linear optics. She is particularly motivated by translation of academic research into industrial applications and her work on HCFs for telecoms contributed to the formation of ORC spin-out Lumenisity in 2017, which commercialised HCF technology and was acquired by Microsoft in 2022. Natalie currently holds a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2015 -2026).
Now, Natalie leads a research group focussed on Gas Photonics in HCFs, working on projects including high sensitivity gas detection, lifetime and reliability of HCFs, gas and liquid dynamics in HCFs and distributed sensing. Her group has expertise in HCF design and fabrication, characterisation, gas-filling, interconnections and splicing and collaborates with a diverse range of academic and industrial partners. Natalie has published more than 200 papers, including >55 journal papers and >40 invited/ post-deadline papers.
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Speaker Introduction
 |
Thierry Georges
Oxxius (France) 2026 Symposium Chair |
9:05 - 9:50 hrs CEST
Volumetric printing by reverse tomography: a new paradigm in additive manufacturing
 |
Christophe Moser
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) |
Volumetric printing by reverse tomography-commonly referred to as tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing (TVAM), or simply VAM-is a layerless 3D printing approach that creates solid objects by projecting sequences of light patterns into a rotating photosensitive resin. The cumulative energy deposition leads to localized photopolymerization, enabling the fabrication of complex 3D structures within seconds.
Since its first demonstration in 2019, TVAM has rapidly gained attention and has been extended to a wide range of materials, including polymers, hydrogels, ceramics, metals, and glass. Despite these advances, several fundamental challenges remain: expanding the achievable build volume, improving resolution toward that of two-photon polymerization, and extending the method to non-transparent or composite resins.
Beyond these technical hurdles, TVAM also opens unique opportunities not accessible to traditional additive manufacturing techniques—for example, the ability to fabricate directly around existing structures. This talk will review the progress of the field, highlight key developments, and explore emerging strategies to address current limitations while pointing toward new application domains.
Christophe Moser graduated in physics from EPFL in 1993 and began his career as an engineer at Hexagon Metrology in Switzerland. He earned his PhD in 2000 in optical information processing from the California Institute of Technology. He co-founded and served as CEO of Ondax, Inc. in Monrovia, California, a company later acquired by Coherent.
In 2010, he returned to EPFL, where he is now Full Professor and Director of the Microengineering Section. His research interests include volumetric 3D printing, ultra compact endoscopy using multimode fibers, and optical computing.
He co-founded Composyt Light Lab in 2014, a startup in the field of head-worn displays (acquired by Intel in 2015), and is also co-founder of EarlySight SA (2019), Readily3D SA (2020), and Modendo (2021). He is the author or co-author of more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and holds over 80 patents.
9:50 - 10:35 hrs CEST
From glass to gas: advances, applications and new challenges in hollow core fibre technology
 |
Natalie Wheeler
Univ. of Southampton, Optoelectronics Research Ctr. (United Kingdom) Technical Univ. Munich (Germany) |
Hollow core fibres (HCFs) guide light through a gas-filled core rather than solid glass and offer unique optical properties and transformative potential. Recent breakthroughs have reduced losses to levels below those of conventional silica fibres across a broad spectrum—from the ultraviolet to the mid-infrared. While these advances were primarily driven by applications in high-capacity data transmission, the capabilities of HCFs extend far beyond communications. They enable enhanced light–matter interactions, exceptional radiation hardness and low non-linearity for sensing applications such as gas detection and precision gyroscopes. There is even the prospect of light transmission in vacuum, pushing towards ultimate waveguide performance. As fibre designs improve, controlling the internal gas composition and pressure becomes critical, driving progress in gas dynamics modelling, advanced characterisation, and post-processing techniques. This talk will explore recent progress in HCF technology, the pivotal role of gas in transmission, and the opportunities and challenges of guiding light through a hollow core.
Natalie Wheeler is a Professor of Photonics in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton in the U.K. She has more than 18 years research experience in the area of hollow core optical fibres (HCFs). Her research has spanned across HCF design, fabrication and characterisation and into a wide range of applications including data transmission, high power delivery, fibre-based sensing and non-linear optics. She is particularly motivated by translation of academic research into industrial applications and her work on HCFs for telecoms contributed to the formation of ORC spin-out Lumenisity in 2017, which commercialised HCF technology and was acquired by Microsoft in 2022. Natalie currently holds a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2015 -2026).
Now, Natalie leads a research group focussed on Gas Photonics in HCFs, working on projects including high sensitivity gas detection, lifetime and reliability of HCFs, gas and liquid dynamics in HCFs and distributed sensing. Her group has expertise in HCF design and fabrication, characterisation, gas-filling, interconnections and splicing and collaborates with a diverse range of academic and industrial partners. Natalie has published more than 200 papers, including >55 journal papers and >40 invited/ post-deadline papers.