Fossum Wins Draper Prize

Optica Fellow Eric R. Fossum, Dartmouth College, USA, was awarded the 2026 Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering, which is granted every two years by the National Academy of Engineering and is one of the world’s preeminent honors for engineering achievement. The NAE recognized Fossum “for innovation, development, and commercialization of the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor active pixel image sensor,” an invention that remains the core technology behind roughly 7 billion cameras produced each year.

Pozo at Lumière Industry Summit

Optica CTO Jose Pozo was a keynote speaker at the Lumière Industry Summit 2026 on 14 May in Québec City, Canada. This leading event for the Canadian photonics ecosystem brought together industry leaders, senior government officials, researchers and investors. Pozo spoke about global photonics trends, including AI infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, defense, sensing and semiconductor supply chains.

Accelerating Optics Careers

From 3 to 6 May, the Optica Foundation hosted its 6^th Career Accelerator at Optica Headquarters in Washington, DC, bringing together 77 early-career professionals from 20 countries for workshops, networking and professional development. The program focused on career paths and the professional and personal skills needed for success, with the goal of acquainting students with the corporate world’s culture, language and methodology.

Speakers included Simin Cai, President and CEO, Go!Foton, USA; Matthew Weed, Vice President, Product, Luminar Technologies, USA; and Christina Willis, Director of Government Affairs & Senior Optical Scientist, Infleqtion, USA, among others. New to the Accelerator this year, the WORKinOPTICS Career Center offered popular resume and LinkedIn review sessions for attendees.

New Technical Group Leadership

Optica has announced new leaders for 10 of the society’s 51 technical groups—vibrant and active communities that connect Optica members with colleagues and leaders in specialized fields. The selected individuals will serve as chair for a three-year term through December 2028. Elected by their fellow members, these individuals will be responsible for selecting an executive committee, organizing special events featuring tailored programming, hosting webinars on pertinent topics and sharing information on the latest developments in their areas of expertise. For more on the new leaders, visit optica.org/tgelection.

Optica Award Winners

Optica and the Optica Foundation are proud to honor the outstanding achievements of our community. During CLEO, several 2026 Optica Fellows were recognized, as well as the following award winners:

Charles Hard Townes Medal: Yoshihisa Yamamoto, G-QuAT, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan, for his work on networks of degenerate optical parametric oscillators, coherent Ising machines and their applications.

R.W. Wood Prize: Jelena Vuckovic, Stanford University, USA, for pioneering contributions to integrated photonics, foundational work in quantum photonics and the breakthrough development of a practical photonic inverse design.

Adolph Lomb Medal: Sergio Carbajo, University of California, Los Angeles and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, USA, in recognition of the development of first-principles methodologies and seminal contributions to controlling ultrafast photonic and electronic wave­packets and drive processes in quantum matter with unprecedented space-time precision at elementary scales.

James P. Gordon Memorial Speaker­ship: Chris Anderson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA, for his invited talk, “Silicon Carbide Quantum Photonic Circuits with Integrated Coherent Spins Qubits.”

Tingye Li Innovation Prize: Sonja Lingl, University of Regensburg, Germany, for her paper, “Tracing Electron Wave Packets at the Space-Time Limit.”

Thank You, Editors

We are happy to announce the following individuals were recently appointed as new editors: Applied Optics—Dharmendra Kumar, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, India. Biomedical Optics Express—James McGinty, Imperial College London, UK. JOCN—Lynn Nelson, AT&T Labs, USA; Anna Tzanakaki, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. JOSA B—Yaowen Hu, Peking University, China; Anurag Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India; Valerio Vitali, University of Pavia, Italy; Francesco Chiadini, University of Salerno, Italy. Optica—Karen Volke-Sepúlveda, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico. Optical Materials Express—Nicolás Abadía, Cardiff University, UK. Optics Continuum—Qiang Fu, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia. Optics Express—Xinying Li, Beijing Institute of Technology, China; Yoshifumi Wakisaka, NTT Research Labs, Japan. Optics Letters—Antonio Agnesi, University of Pavia, Italy; Marcus Cicerone, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA; Jie Guo, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Photonics Research—Steven Adie, Cornell University, USA; Ignacio Del Villar Fernández, Public University of Navarre, Spain; Zhibo Hou, University of Science and Technology of China, China; Dongmei Huang, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China; Zhengyong Liu, Sun Yat-sen University, China; Donghan Ma, Dalian University of Technology, China; Satyendra Mishra, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Spain; Kanagaraj Nithyanandan, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India; Xiaohao Xu, Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of CAS, China; Yunhua Yao, East China Normal University, China; Doaa Youssef, National Institute of Laser Enhanced Sciences, Cairo University, Egypt; Junwen Zhang, Fudan University, China; Qiming Zhang, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, China; Zhaoyang Zhang, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China; Jiaqi Zhou, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

We would like to thank the following editors for agreeing to serve a second term: Optica Quantum—Animesh Datta, University of Warwick, UK; Zhe-Yu (Jeff) Ou, City University of Hong Kong; Marina Radulaski, University of California, Davis, USA; Aephraim Steinberg, University of Toronto, Canada; Alfred U’Ren, UNAM Mexico, Mexico; Nick Vamivakas, University of Rochester, USA; Hailin Wang, University of Oregon, USA.

We would like to thank the following editors, who have recently finished their terms, for their years of service: Biomedical Optics Express—Christopher Dunsby, Imperial College London, UK. JOSA B—Ilaria Cristiani, University of Pavia, Italy. Optica—Olivier Pfister, University of Virginia, USA. Optics Letters—Yongkang Dong, Harbin Institute of Technology, China; Xiaoyan Liang, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, China; Cuicui Lu, Beijing Institute of Technology, China; Soma Venugopal Rao, University of Hyderabad, India; Dong Wu, University of Science and Technology of China, China. Photonics Research—Di Liang, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA; Stephan Reitzenstein, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany.

Thank You, Congress Chairs

Thank you to the chairs of the Optica ImageSense Congress and Advanced Photonics Congresses.

Optica ImageSense Congress: Congress Chairs: Gilberto Brambilla, University of Southampton, UK; Daping Chu, University of Cambridge, UK; Hong Hua, University of Arizona, USA. Industry Chair: Borislav Hinkov, Silicon Austria Labs GmbH, Austria.

Topical Meetings Chairs: 3D Image Acquisition and Display: Ana Doblas, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA; Yuzuru Takashima, University of Arizona, USA; Julie Buquet, Immervision Inc., Canada.

Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS): Lucile Rutkowski, Institut de Physique de Rennes, France; Christoph Englert, US Naval Research Laboratory, USA; David Naylor, University of Lethbridge, Canada.

Optical Sensors (Sensors): Ali Masoudi, University of Southampton, UK; Jennifer Morales, US Army Research Laboratory, USA; Paul Pellegrino, US Army Research Laboratory, USA.

Adaptive Optics: Methods, Analysis and Applications (AO): Serge Meimon, Office Natl d’Études Rech Aerospatiales, France; Laura Young, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; Kate Grieve, Institut De La Vision Paris, France; Peter Kner, University of Georgia, USA; Noelia Martinez-Rey, Australian National University, Australia.

Hyperspectral/Multispectral Imaging and Sounding of the Environment (HISE): Sanna Kaasalainen, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute, Finland; Wesley Moses, US Naval Research Laboratory, USA; Shen-En Qian, Canadian Space Agency, Canada.

Optics and Photonics for Sensing the Environment (ES): Lukas Emmenegger, EMPA, Switzerland; Genevieve Plant, University of Michigan, USA; Caroline Kistner, Nanoplus Nanosystems and Tech GmbH, Germany; Juha Toivonen, Tampereen Yliopisto, Finland.

Applied Industrial Spectroscopy (AIS): Aparajita Bandyopadhyay, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India; Amy Bauer, Ocean Optics BV, Germany.

Imaging Systems and Applications Topical meeting (IS): Zeev Zalevsky, Bar-Ilan University, Israel; Olivier Francois, Huawei Technologies, Finland; Ofer Levi, University of Toronto, Canada; Nisan Ozana, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Propagation Through and Characterization of Atmospheric and Oceanic Phenomena (pcAOP): Santasri Bose-Pillai, Air Force Institute of Technology, USA; Dario Perez, Pontificia Univ Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile; Jason Schmidt, MZA Associates Corporation, USA; Anand Sarma, IISER Thiruvananthapuram, India.

Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging (COSI): Ashley Lyons, University of Glasgow, UK; Chris Metzler, University of Maryland at College Park, USA; Esteban Vera, Pontificia Univ Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile; Julia Alonso, Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay; Maciej Trusiak, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland.

Laser Applications to Chemical, Security and Environmental Analysis (LACSEA): Aamir Farooq, King Abdullah Univ of Sci & Technology, Saudi Arabia; Naibo Jiang, Spectral Energies LLC,
USA; Caroline Winters, National Physical Laboratory, USA; Chloe Dedic, University of Virginia, USA; Benoit Fond, ONERA - the French Aerospace Lab, France; Daniel Richardson, Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque, USA.

Quantum Sensing and Metrology (QSM): Philippe Bouyer, Univ. Amsterdam and Tec. Univ. Eindhoven, Netherlands; Jennifer Choy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA; Tatevik Chalyan, Vrije Universiteit, Brussel, Belgium; Michael Semmlinger, Hamamatsu Corporation, USA; Jean-Philippe Tetienne, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia; Quntao Zhuang, University of Southern California, USA.

Advanced Photonics Congresses: Congress Chair: David Hillerkuss, Nokia Corporation, Germany. Industry Chairs: Jonathan Klamkin, Aeluma, Inc., USA; Junichi Kani, NTT Corporation, Japan.

Topical Meetings Chairs: Bragg Gratings, Photosensitivity and Poling in Optical Materials and Waveguides (BGPP): Martin Bernier, Université Laval, Canada; Christophe Caucheteur, Universite de Mons, Belgium; Sébastien Loranger, Polytechnique Montréal, Canada; Adriana Morana, Universite Jean Monnet, France; Remco Nieuwland, Somni Solutions, Netherlands.

Photonic Networks and Devices (Networks): Carmen Mas Machuca, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany; Lena Wosinska, Chalmers Tekniska Högskola, Sweden; Hiroshi Hasegawa, Nagoya University, Japan; Jasper Müller, Adtran Networks SE, Germany; Michela Svaluto Moreolo, Centre Tecnològic Telecom de Catalunya, Spain.

Integrated Photonics Research, Silicon and Nanophotonics (IPR): Chaoran Huang, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Daniele Melati, C2N-CNRS, France; Aseema Mohanty, Tufts University, USA; Christelle Monat, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France; Angelina Totovic, Celestial AI, Greece.

Signal Processing in Photonic Communications (SPPCom): Paola Parolari, Politecnico di Milano, Italy; Gaël Simon, Orange, France; Hwan Seok Chung, Electronics and Telecom Research Inst, Republic of Korea; Yuanqiu Luo, Futurewei Technologies Inc, USA.

Nonlinear Photonics (NP): Mikko Huttunen, Tampere University, Finland; Sylvie Lebrun, Universite Paris-Saclay, France; Sile Nic Chormaic, Okinawa Inst of Science & Technology, Japan; Neil Broderick, University of Auckland, New Zealand; Katia Shtyrkova, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, France.

Solar, Lighting and Thermal Photonics (SOLITH): Aaswath Raman, University of California Los Angeles, USA; Baodan Zhao, Zhejiang University, China; Carissa Eisler, University of California, Los Angeles, USA; Jyotirmoy Mandal, Princeton University, USA.

Novel Optical Materials and Applications (NOMA): Lynda Busse, US Naval Research Laboratory, USA; Francois Chenard, IRflex Corporation, USA; Alon Gorodetsky, University of California, Irvine, USA; Jonathan Hu, Baylor University, USA; Edward Kinzel, University of Notre Dame, USA.

Specialty Optical Fibers (SOF): Peter Dragic, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Yingying Wang, Jinan University, China; Yong Chen, Microsoft Azure Fiber, UK; Mariusz Klimczak, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Poland; Amy Van Newkirk, Penn State Applied Research Lab, USA.