Optica Leads Quantum Legislative Push

Optica brought together quantum industry leaders, researchers and policymakers from over 35 organizations on 23-24 March in Washington, DC to advocate for federal funding in FY27 and reauthorization of the National Quantum Initiative (NQI) Act, the legislation coordinating US quantum R&D since 2018. Members of the Optica delegation were from across the quantum supply chain and included Optica Corporate Members such as Google, IonQ, PsiQuantum, TOPTICA Photonics, Vexlum Photonics, Beacon Photonics, Qunnect, Nokia Bell Labs, Thorlabs and Edmund Optics.

The program included remarks and discussion with the cochairs of the Congressional Optics and Photonics Caucus, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY). Also participating were staff from Senate Commerce, Senate Energy and Natural Resources, and House Science, Space, and Technology Committees. Reauthorization Act cosponsors Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also joined, as well as Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) and Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC). There was also a roundtable discussion with Executive branch officials Mark Clampin, Deputy Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate; James Kushmerick, NIST, Physical Measurement Lab Director; Jason Boehm, NIST Chief of Staff; and Tanner Crowder, DOE Quantum Lead.

A High-Impact, AI-Focused OFC

This year’s edition of the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC), the world’s largest annual gathering for optical networking and communications professionals, took place from 15 to 19 March in Los Angeles, USA. OFC 2026 hosted nearly 18,000 researchers, engineers, network operators, technology suppliers, startups and business leaders from 91 countries. The exhibit hall was sold out, and more than 700 exhibiting companies convened for a dynamic week of major product announcements, technical milestones and industry collaboration. The event underscored the expanding role of optical technologies in enabling AI infrastructure, data centers and next-generation network architectures.

The program featured over 820 technical presentations as well as roughly 50 short courses on topics like generative AI for optical networking, subsea networks, data center architectures, space optics, quantum communications and more. The plenary talks explored cutting-edge technologies, including a talk on optical technologies driving AI, data centers and communications networks from Julie Sheridan Eng, Coherent, USA. Alexis Bjorlin, Nvidia, USA, spoke about revolutionizing networking for gigawatt AI factories, while Siegbert Martin, Tesat-Spacecom, Germany, discussed optical networks in space.

Other highlights included the OFC Awards Ceremony and Luncheon, an Optica Publishing Meet the Journal Editors event, interactive workshops, special sessions and symposia on hot topics.

“OFC 2026 reflected the scale, urgency and global momentum shaping optical networking today,” said OFC General Chair Jiajia Chen, ByteDance. “From strong attendance and international participation to the pace of announcements across the week, the event made clear that optical technologies are central to enabling the next era of AI infrastructure, cloud growth and high-performance communications.”

Optica Executive Forum

The Optica Executive Forum, co-located with OFC 2026, took place on 16 March in Los Angeles, USA. This strategic forum brought together C-suite executives, CTOs and industry visionaries for candid dialog on the critical business and technology issues shaping global networks. Participants engaged in focused keynote sessions, panel presentations, a CEO roundtable, business-fireside chats and dedicated networking.

Speakers included senior leaders in optical networking and communications, such as Andreas Bechtolsheim, cofounder and chief architect at Arista; Bill Gartner, SVP & GM, CBS Optics at Cisco; David Heard, president of network infrastructure at Nokia; Jim Anderson, CEO of Coherent; Matt Murphy, chairman and CEO of Marvell Technology Group; Near Margalit, VP/GM Optical Systems at Broadcom; and Nicholas Harris, founder and CEO of Lightmatter, among others.

Biomedical Optics Express Best Paper Prize

The 2025 Biomedical Optics Express Best Paper Prize was awarded to the paper, “Imaging of vitreous cortex hyalocyte dynamics using non-confocal quadrant-detection adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy in human subjects” by Justin V. Migacz, Oscar Otero-Marquez, Rebecca Zhou, Kara Rickford, Brian Murillo, Davis B. Zhou, Maria V. Castanos, Nripun Sredar, Alfredo Dubra, Richard B. Rosen and Toco Y. P. Chui.

This annual prize distinguishes influential and pivotal research related to optics, photonics and optical imaging in biomedicine. It recognizes one outstanding paper that was published in the Journal within the three previous calendar years. The recipients are selected by a committee of Biomedical Optics Express editors based on criteria including overall significance, quality and presentation. The prize includes a certificate of recognition and waiver of a future publication fee in Biomedical Optics Express.

Browaeys Honored during DPG Spring Meeting

Optica Past President Gerd Leuchs and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (DPG) President Klaus Richter presented Antoine Browaeys, Institut d’Optique, CNRS, France, with the 2026 Herbert Walther Award during the DPG Spring Meeting in Mainz, Germany. Browaeys is recognized for the realization of arrays of single neutral atoms held in optical tweezers as a platform for exquisitely controlled quantum simulation of many-body physics and their development as a candidate platform for scalable quantum computation. He gave a special talk during the event on “Assembling quantum matter one atom at a time: Many-body physics with arrays of Rydberg atoms.”

Subscribe to Open for JOSA B

Optica Publishing Group announced that its inaugural Subscribe to Open (S2O) pilot for the Journal of the Optical Society of America B (JOSA B) has been successful. All content published in the 2026 volume of JOSA B will be made open access in perpetuity and freely available to readers worldwide without article processing charges (APCs) for authors. This decision comes after receiving sufficient subscription renewals and commitments from institutional libraries to meet the S2O participation threshold. The successful implementation of S2O for JOSA B reflects the strong engagement of the library community and demonstrates a sustainable, community-driven pathway to open access that benefits authors, libraries and readers.

CREOL Spring Industrial Affiliates

From 5 to 7 March, the University of Central Florida College of Optics and Photonics, CREOL, USA, held its spring Industrial Affiliates Symposium. This event, which brought together nearly 300 faculty, students and industry representatives, focused this year on the growing opportunities in biomedical photonics and quantum photonics. Optica President Gisele Bennett attended on behalf of the society and gave an industry update to attendees. During the event, CREOL Dean David Hagan recognized Bennett as the 2026 Distinguished Alumnus Award Honoree.

Attendees also enjoyed a special guest lecture from Mikhail Lukin of Harvard University and QuEra Computing, Inc., USA, on “New Frontier for Quantum Computing, as well as numerous technical sessions, including talks from Jason Eichenholz, founder and CEO of Relativity Networks, USA, and Bruce Tromberg, Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, USA. Other highlights included a student career fair and lab tours.

Webinar on Women Leaders in Optics & Photonics

In honor of Women’s History Month, on 26 March Optica held a WorkinOptics webinar entitled “Careers, Challenges and Change: Women Leaders in Optics & Photonics.” This panel discussion featured Optica Director at Large Caroline Boudoux, Polytechnique Montréal, Canada; Begüm Kabagöz, MIT Kavli Institute, USA; and Diana Mojahed, CEO of Lightfinder, USA. They shared their career journeys and current work, as well as reflecting on the role of mentorship and sponsorship, overcoming challenges, building skills and balancing demanding careers. The panelists also explored how the landscape for women in optics and photonics has evolved and what still needs to change.

Thank You, Editors

 

We are happy to announce the following individuals were recently appointed as new editors: Biomedical Optics Express—Yali Jia, Oregon Health & Science University (as Features Editor). JOCN—Patricia Layec, Nokia Bell Labs, France. Optica—Emanuele Galiffi, University of Texas at Austin, USA. Optics Express—Paul Chevalier, Harvard University, USA; Francesco Dell’Olio, Politecnico di Bari, Italy; ZeXin Feng, Beijing Institute of Technology, China; Ying Gu, Peking University, China; Donglin Ma, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China; Shuichi Makita, University of Tsukuba, Japan; Bienvenu Ndagano, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Canada; Noah Rubin, University of California, San Diego, USA; Jian Wang, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Optics Letters—Jincheng Ni, University of Science and Technology of China; Judith Su, University of Arizona, USA.

We would like to thank the following editors for agreeing to serve a second term: Biomedical Optics Express—Xueli Chen, Xidian University, China. JOSA B—Christos Tserkezis, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark. Optica—Derryck Reid, Heriot-Watt University, UK; Hong Tang, Yale University, USA. Optica Quantum—Luis L. Sanchez-Soto, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain; Kartik Srinivasan, NIST and University of Maryland, USA. Photonics Research—Lin Chang, Peking University, China; Dalong Qi, East China Normal University, China; Hao Sun, Tsinghua University, China; Lin Wang, Nanjing Tech University, China; Xiaoxiao Xue, Tsinghua University, China.

We would like to thank the following editors, who have recently finished their terms, for their years of service: Applied Optics—Peter Dragic, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; Joyce Farrell, Stanford University, USA; Pengfei Wang, Harbin Engineering University, China. Advances in Optics and Photonics—Guifang Li, University of Central Florida, CREOL, USA (Editor-in-Chief). Biomedical Optics Express—Yali Jia, Oregon Health & Science University, USA. Optica—Nicolas Bonod, Fresnel Institut, France; François Légaré, INRS-Energie Mat & Tele Site Varennes, Canada; Steven J. Van Enk, University of Oregon, USA. Optics Letters—Hanne Ludvigsen, Aalto University, Finland; Harald Schwefel, University of Otago, New Zealand.

Thank You, Optica Reps to CLEO Steering

Optica Representatives to CLEO Steering: Camille-Sophie Brès, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland; Kaoru Minoshima, University of Electro Communications, Japan; Rohit Prasankumar, Intellectual Ventures, USA; Clara Saraceno, Ruhr Universität Bochum, Germany; Sergey Vasilyev, IPG Photonics Corp., USA.