2018 is going to be a great year at JOSA A with an exciting range of tutorials, special features, and, as usual, some of the best original research papers in optics. We begin the year well with three of our team receiving honors from the Optical Society (OSA). We also welcome two new topical editors.

M. Scott Dineen, Senior Director of Publishing Production & Technology, won the OSA Treasurer’s Award. This award is presented to a staff member who makes significant contributions to organizational excellence, promotes and enacts innovative solutions, or exemplifies inspirational leadership. Scott’s work at OSA enables the fast and efficient handling and publication of papers at JOSA A. He doesn’t just do his job well; he ensures that his job aligns with the mission of the Society and the needs of the global optics community we serve. At JOSA A we are all incredibly pleased to see Scott honored in this way.

Topical Editor Johannes Courtial was elected Fellow of The Optical Society, “for sustained contributions to optics, including the first scheme to sort and measure the orbital angular momentum of single photons, and pixelated generalized refraction.” Johannes contributes to the collective expertise of the JOSA A team in these areas and so many more. While he has been recognized for his singular accomplishments, we at JOSA A have benefited from the great breadth of his knowledge of optics and his thoughtful approach to scholarship.

Topical Editor Anne Sentenac was also elected Fellow of The Optical Society, “for contributions to the solution of optical inverse problems, computed imaging and high-resolution microscopy.” Anne brings to JOSA A the highest level of accomplishment in her field, a field I work in myself. I am regularly awed by Anne’s work, and grateful that she publishes with us. As an editor she has raised the bar for computed imaging and has attracted more great research to the Journal.

Jennifer Hunter will join the team of JOSA A topical editors in the area of visual and physiological optics. She takes over from Harilaos Ginis, who has served admirably for two three-year terms in that position. I would like to thank Harilaos and welcome Jennifer.

Izabela Naydenova is joining us as the new topical editor for gratings and diffraction. Izabela takes over that coverage from Antigone Marino, who has, for months now, been doing double duty covering those areas as well as ellipsometry and metrology. Antigone will continue to cover the latter two topics.

Jennifer J. Hunter

Visual and Physiological Optics

Jennifer J. Hunter is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology in the Flaum Eye Institute at the University of Rochester, USA. She has secondary appointments in The Institute of Optics and Biomedical Engineering and is also a member of the Center for Visual Science. After earning a Ph.D. in Physics and Vision Science in 2007 from the University of Waterloo, Canada, she pursued postdoctoral training at the University of Rochester. Her research interests include the optics of the eye, development of non-invasive fluorescence imaging techniques to study retinal function in healthy and diseased eyes, and understanding mechanisms of light-induced retinal damage. Jennifer served as chair of OSA’s Vision and Color Division from 2014 to 2016. She is an active member of the ANSI Z136 Safe Use of Lasers standards committee and chairs the related Laser Bioeffects & Medical Surveillance subcommittee (TSC-1). In 2017, Jennifer was awarded the Research to Prevent Blindness Ernest & Elizabeth Althouse Special Scholar Award.

Izabela Naydenova

Gratings and Diffraction

Izabela Naydenova is a Professor in the School of Physics and Clinical & Optometric Sciences, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland (DIT). She was awarded her M.Sc. in Applied Optics from the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski,” Bulgaria, in 1993 and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1999. After postdoctoral positions at the Technical University of Munich, Germany (1999-2002), and DIT (2002-2008), she took up her academic position in DIT in 2008. Her main research achievements are in holographic systems, structures and materials for application in optical sensing, and diffractive optical elements and devices. She has published over 110 full-length papers and six book chapters and is editor of three books. She is co-inventor of seven patent families, of which five are granted. She has led a number of projects aiming at commercialization of research and is a co-founder of a spinout company for production of holographic security devices. In 2017, Prof. Naydenova and collaborators in the IEO Centre were awarded the DIT Researcher Impact award for their successful commercialization of research.