Topological complex electromagnetic waves give access to nontrivial light-matter interactions and provide additional degrees of freedom for information transfer. For instance, topologically stable quasiparticles or skyrmions have been demonstrated in quantum fields, solid-state physics, and magnetic materials, but only recently observed in photonic fields, triggering fast expanding research across different spectral ranges and applications. This session focuses on recent advances of photonic skyrmions from fundamental theories to experimental generation and potential applications. The topic includes general optical topological quasiparticles beyond skyrmions and their exotic topological robust properties, emerging applications, future trends, and open challenges in modern spin-orbital optics, imaging and metrology, optical informatics, and topological and quantum technologies.