This short course will start with an introduction to photonic crystals, photonic crystal nanocavities, and lasers fabricated in thin semiconductor slabs containing quantum wells. The applications of high Q cavities containing single quantum dots and the demonstration of strong coupling between cavities and light emitters will be described for quantum information processing. This will be followed by a description of the integration opportunities of photonic crystal cavities with vertical cavity surface emitting lasers. The short course will also cover photonic crystal waveguides, dispersion control in photonic crystals and the opportunities of super-prisms and the challenges of coupling into photonic crystals from conventional index guided waveguides. Finally, a comparison will be made between photonic crystal geometries and conventional high index optics, and the applications of photonic crystal and nanophotonic devices in chemical and biological sensors will be outlined. At the end of the short course, surface plasmon enhanced light emitters and waveguides will be introduced, and their applications in highly efficient solid-state light emitters will be summarized.