As Optical Materials Express commences its sixth year of publication, it is time to transfer the leadership of the Journal to a new Editor-in-Chief. Over the past five years, the Journal, now commonly referred to as “OMEx”, has become well-established as a forum for research at the intersection of optics and materials science, and is now the journal of choice for many authors working in this burgeoning field. I am pleased to say that the Journal has published over 1200 papers since starting in May 2011, and has a record of publishing articles very quickly, with median time to publication that is shorter than any other OSA journal.

Being involved with the start-up of a new journal has been a challenging, but largely rewarding endeavor. Most rewarding of all was to bring together an outstanding team of Associate Editors. It is the Associate Editors that do the “heavy lifting” in OMEx, by handling all the peer review, which involves the difficult task of finding reviewers and also making decisions that are not always easy. The best way to thank Associate or Topical Editors for their service is to agree to conduct reviews when they ask you. (And after agreeing, to actually complete the review!)

I would also like to thank those Associate Editors and other volunteers who have helped the Journal immensely by developing and editing feature issues. A remarkable 26 feature issues have been published or are in production to date.

I am delighted that my successor as Editor-in-Chief will be Dr. Alexandra Boltasseva, of Purdue University, who is an outstanding researcher and has been a frequent contributor to the Journal. I am confident that under her leadership, OMEx will continue to grow in stature.

I would like to especially thank the OSA publications staff, who have provided outstanding support to the Journal and who have continually impressed me with their professionalism. I am also grateful to my colleges on the OSA Board of Editors, both past and present, whose experience and advice were invaluable, particularly in the early years.

I wish my successor, Dr. Boltasseva, the best as she leads OMEx through its next phase of development.

David J. Hagan

Editor-in-Chief, Optical Materials Express

University of Central Florida