SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, was founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies.

Serving more than 264,000 constituents from approximately 166 countries, the not-for-profit society advances emerging technologies through interdisciplinary information exchange, continuing education, publications, patent precedent, and career and professional growth.

SPIE annually organizes and sponsors approximately 25 major technical forums, exhibitions, and education programs in North America, Europe, Asia, and the South Pacific.

In 2015, SPIE provided more than $5.2 million in support of education and outreach programs.

SPIE publishes the SPIE Digital Library, containing more than 415,000 research papers from the Proceedings of SPIE and the Society's 10 scholarly journals with around 18,000 new papers added each year, and more than 215 eBooks from the SPIE Press catalog. The SPIE Press publishes print monographs, tutorial texts, Field Guides, and reference books. SPIE also publishes a wide variety of open access content.