Hurlston and Trumpf Win Optica i4 Prize

Optica’s i4 Prize awards exceptional leadership and contributions from those in industry that embody Optica’s core values of Innovation, Integrity, Inclusion, and Impact. It honors individuals and organizations whose achievements have made a lasting impact on the global optics and photonics industry through technological excellence, visionary leadership and a commitment to advancing the field. Optica is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 i4 Prize, recognizing Michael Hurlston, President and CEO of Lumentum, with the Individual Achievement Prize, and TRUMPF with the Corporate Achievement Prize.

The i4 Prize will be presented during the Global Photonics Economic Forum (GPEF) 2026, taking place in Málaga, Spain, on 24 September, during a ceremony attended by leaders from across the global photonics industry.

University of Rochester’s Lab for Laser Energetics Celebrates Milestones

From 15 to 17 July, the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) at the University of Rochester, USA, held a celebration for three milestone anniversaries: 30 years of the OMEGA 60 laser system, 40 years since the chirped-pulse amplification breakthrough that revolutionized high-power lasers and resulted in the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, and the 50-year anniversary of the Lab itself. 

Optica staff Kari Apter joined 2013 Optica President Donna Strickland, 2025 President James Kafka, 2026 President-elect Turan Erdogan, and Optica Board Member Tom Brown, for the festivities. Congressman Joseph D. Morelle also attended to congratulate LLE on its many accomplishments.

Successful CLEO Pacific Rim in Beijing

CLEO Pacific Rim, hosted by the Chinese Optical Society, Peking University and Tsinghua University and cosponsored by Optica, was held in Beijing, China, from 2 to 6 August. The conference drew more than 1,200 attendees from 31 countries. Optica President Gisele Bennett shared opening remarks via video, and 2026 Fellows Jianji Dong, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, and Donghyun Kim, Yonsei University, Republic of Korea, were recognized. The program, which covers a wide range of laser and electro-optic disciplines, featured plenary talks from Optica Fellows Hong-Bo Sun, Tsinghua University, China; Ju Han Lee, University of Seoul, Republic of Korea; Dieter Bimberg, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany; and Peter Baum, Universität Konstanz, Germany.

Optics Continuum Best Paper Prize

The Optics Continuum Best Paper Prize recognizes one outstanding paper published in the Journal each year. The 2025 Prize was presented to the paper “Femto­second asymmetric multi-pulse shaping via spectral intensity modulation” by authors Koyo Watanabe, Kazuki Kawai and Ryu Niigaki. The committee also selected two papers to receive an honorable mention. The first was “Design and optical performance evaluation of a variable attenuator in a lithography illumination system” by Shuman Yang, Yuejing Qi, Jiani Su, Jing Ma, Zhiyuan Shen and Xiaoyi Zhang. The second went to “Dynamic tuning of soliton microcomb repetition rate without direct cavity actuation” by Usman A. Javid, Michal Chojnacky, David A. Long, Kartik Srinivasan and Grégory Moillee.

Emerging Researcher Best Paper Prizes

Three Optica Publishing Group journals recently announced the winners of their Emerging Research Best Paper Prizes for 2025. These annual Prizes recognize a student or early-career researcher (within five years of earning their highest degree) who is the first author of a paper deemed outstanding by a committee of editors and previous prize winners from the respective journals.

The 2025 winner for JOSA A was the article “Impact of field of view on color constancy in virtual reality” by Killian Duay and a colleague from the Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan. The paper “Spiral adaptive Fresnel lens: Wave optics” by Maik Locher and colleagues from the University of Glasgow, UK, received an honorable mention.

JOSA B’s 2025 winner is the paper titled “Enhancing phase sensitivity in a Mach–Zehnder interferometer with various detection schemes using SU(1,1) coherent states” by Nour-Eddine Abouelkhir and colleagues from Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. The selection committee also recognized an honorable mention, the paper “Rubidium-doped KTiOPO waveguides as a dual-type photon-pair source” by Patrick Hendra and colleagues from the University of Jena, Germany.

Optical Materials Express presented its 2025 prize to “Preventing overfitting in infrared ellipsometry using temperature dependence: fused silica as a case study,” authored by co-first-authors Jin-Woo Cho and Shenwei Yin and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. The selection committee also awarded an honorable mention to acknowledge a paper expected to be a key contribution for photonic technologies: “Centimetre-scale micro-transfer printing to enable heterogeneous integration of thin film lithium niobate with silicon photonics” by Margot Niels and colleagues at Ghent University, Belgium.

Thank You, FiO+LS Volunteers

Frontiers in Optics

Chairs: Liangcai Cao, Tsinghua University, China; Sterling Backus, Thorlabs Colorado Center for Innovation, USA.

Subcommittee Chairs: FiO 1: Fabrication, Design and Instrumentation: Raj Patel, Xscape Photonic Inc., USA. FiO 2: Optical Interactions: Shawn Sederberg, Simon Fraser University, Canada. FiO 3: Quantum Electronics: Bienvenu Ndagano, INRS-EMT, Canada. FiO 4: Fiber Optics and Optical Communications: Giovanni Milione, Sintela Inc., USA. FiO 5: Integrated Devices for Computing, Sensing and Other Applications: Seth Catano-Lopez, Blue Laser Fusion, USA. FiO 6: Optics in Biology, Medicine, Vision and Color: Ruikang Wang, University of Washington, USA. FiO 7: Information Acquisition, Processing and Display: Pierre-Alexandre Blanche, Amazon, USA.

Theme Organizers: Extreme Light: Robert Kaindl, Arizona State University, USA; Sterling Backus, Thorlabs Colorado Center for Innovation, USA; Giacomo Coslovich, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, USA; Csaba Toth, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA. Quantum Technologies: Nickolas Vamivakas, University of Rochester, USA. Space Optics: Zack Lapin, Fibertek, USA. Virtual Reality and Augmented Vision: Liangcai Cao, Tsinghua University, China.

Laser Congress

Advanced Solid State Lasers Conference (ASSL): Christian Kraenkel, IKZ Berlin, Germany; Jonathan Evans, AFIT, USA; Valentin Petrov, Max Born Institute, Germany; Weidong Chen, Fujian Institute of Research, China; Anne-Laure Calendron, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Germany; Martin Bernier, Université Laval, Canada.

Mid-Infrared Coherent Sources (MICS): Majid Ebrahim-Zadeh, Radiantis, Spain; Sergey Mirov, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA; Peter Schunemann, USA; Irina Sorokina, Norwegian University of Science and Tech, Norway.

Compact EUV & X-Ray Light Sources (EUVXRAY): Lahsen Assoufid, Argonne National Laboratory, USA; Patrick Naulleau, EUV Tech, USA; Franz Kaertner, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Germany; Hiroshi Kawata, High Energy Accelerator Research Org, Japan; Manasa Medikonda, IBM TJ Watson Research Center, USA; Jorge Rocca, Colorado State University, USA.

High-Intensity Lasers and High-Field Phenomena (HILAS): Thomas Metzger, TRUMPF Scientific Lasers, Germany; Emily Frances Link, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA; Caterina Vozzi, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy.

Laser Applications Conference (LAC): Sandra Biedron, Element Aero, USA; Gregory Quarles, Applied Energetics, USA; Kei Takeya, Institute for Molecular Science, Japan; Bryan Germann, Aerotech Inc., USA; Thomas Grunberger, Austria; Ruth Houbertz, ThinkMade Engineering & Consulting, Germany.

Thank You, Editors

We are happy to announce that the following individuals were recently appointed as new editors: Applied Optics—Nicolaie Pavel, National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics (INFLPR), Romania; Venugopal Rao Soma, University of Hyderabad, India; Junchao Zhang, Central South University, China; Binbin Zhou, Technical University of Denmark. Optica—Cristian Antonelli, University of L’Aquila, Italy; Daniele Bajoni, University of Pavia, Italy; Garrett Cole, University of Arizona, USA; Wolfram Pernice, University of Heidelberg, Germany; S.K. Sundaram, Alfred University, USA. Optica Quantum—Olivier Pfister, University of Virginia, USA; Qi-Fan Yang, Peking University, China.

We would like to thank the following editors, who have recently finished their terms, for their years of service: Applied Optics—Jiangfeng Zhou, University of South Florida, USA. Biomedical Optics Express—Linda Lundström, Royal Institute of Technology/KTH, Sweden. JOSA B—Christopher Poulton, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Optica—Antonio Mecozzi, University of L’Aquila, Italy. Optics Continuum—Uma Maheswari Rajagopalan, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan.