The Fifth Pacific Rim Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO/PR 2003) was originally scheduled on July 22 - 26, 2003, at Taipei, Taiwan. Because of the SARS epidemic in Taiwan, this conference has been postponed till December 15 - 19, 2003. The purpose of the Conference is to review the state-of-the-art of lasers and electro-optics from basic science and device research to engineering systems and applications. The conference also intends to cross-fertilize with other fields including multimedia, environmental control, and biomedical systems. The Conference is open to relevant professionals from academia, industry, and government.

The CLEO/PR is part of the CLEO Conference series, which has been running annually since 1981 in North America. The rapid expansion of these front-edge science/technology activities to a global scale necessitated a start of the new Conference Series in the Pacific Rim and European regions. The first, second and fourth CLEO/PR were held in 1995, 1997 and 2001, at Makuhari Messe, Japan, and the third CLEO/PR was held in 1999 at Seoul, Korea, all with great success.

CLEO/PR 2003 is organized by the Graduate Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering/National Taiwan University and the Taiwan Optical Engineering Society. It is sponsored by the National Science Council, t he Ministry of Education, the Taipei City Government, the Graduate Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering/National Taiwan University, Center for Information and Electronics Technologies/National Taiwan University, Center for Nano Science and Technology/National Taiwan University, Southern Taiwan Opto-electronics Center of Excellence/National Sun Yat-Sen University, the Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering/National Chiao Tung University, the Institute of Optical Sciences/National Central University, the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences/Academia Sinica, Opto-Electronics & Systems Laboratories/Industrial Technology Research Institute, International Program Center/Industrial Technology Research Institute, AOARD/AFOSR/USA, and AFOFE/USA. This conference is co-sponsored by the Optical Society of America, IEEE/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, the Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association, the Japan Society of Applied Physics, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers/Electronics Society & Communication Society, the Optical Society of Korea, the Australian Optical Society, and the Hong Kong Optoelectronics Association.

English will be used for all printed materials, presentations, and discussions.