Back in 1992 the first Iberoamerican Optics Meeting (Reunión Iberoamericana de Óptica - Reunião Iberoamericana de Óptica, RIAO) successfully took place in Spain. Along the years organized together with the Latinamerican Meeting on Optics, Lasers and Applications (Encuentro Latinoamericano de Óptica, Láseres y sus Aplicaciones, OPTILAS) the RIAO/OPTILAS meeting have steadily grown establishing it self as the major scientific meeting in optics and photonics in Iberoamerica. It as been a privileged forum for friendly intense committed discussions and sharing of ideas and experiences in the field of optics and photonics and the establishment of so many sound and long lasting cooperation and personal relationships among Iberoamerican institution and optics researchers and colleagues all over the world. It long became the reference meeting in Optics in Iberoamerica and our main "window" to the world, that widely recognizes the decisive importance of Iberoamerica' contribution to the development of Optics and Photonics. 

Twenty one years later the Iberoamerican Optics meeting returns to the Iberian Peninsula! Portugal and the city of Porto will proudly welcome the VIII Reunión Iberoamericana de Óptica / XI Reunión Iberoamericana de Óptica, Láseres y Aplicaciones (RIAO/OPTILAS 2013) to be held at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, July 22 to 26, 2013. 

It is a great honor to us SPOF, the Portuguese Society for Optics and Photonics, to host this prestigious conference and we are looking forward to welcome the Iberoamerican optics and photonics community and our friends from all over the world, for an exciting and most pleasant week.

The conference on Education and Training on Optics and Photonics, ETOP2013, this year jointly organised by the Portuguese and Tunisian Optics national societies is collocated and will run in parallel and in an articulated way with RIAO/OPTILAS2013.

CHAIRPERSON

Manuel Filipe P. C. Martins Costa

(U. Minho) - SPOF

LOCAL ORGANIZATION

Orlando Frazão (INESC Porto)

José Luís Santos (FCUP)

Paulo Tavares (FEUP)