Topical editors at JOSA A are limited to two three-year terms, as is the editor-in-chief. This means that I am seeing my colleagues with whom I served as Topical Editor or Deputy Editor (2010–2016) one by one all retiring from JOSA A. It is bittersweet as it also offers me a prompt to express the gratitude they so richly deserve. Moreover, as I take a break from worrying over how we will make the Journal work without them, I look around our community of researchers and am heartened to find another round of outstanding leaders in the field ready to do the job and bring their own perspective to it.

Dominique Barchiesi ably served his six years as topical editor for biomedical optics. Prior to his editorial tenure Dominique published several papers with us and during his tenure he wrote a lovely tutorial [1], and a wonderful research article [2]. There are so many great outlets for research in biomedical optics, even just within the OSA family of journals, so I am grateful that Dominique ensured JOSA A published high-quality work of significance for our readers.

Dominique’s role now passes to Irina Larina. Irina makes me want to work in biomedical imaging the way that Ken Burns makes me want to play baseball or study American history. The vivid, exquisitely detailed 4D images that come from her lab are shedding light on fundamental biological questions and the intuitive, accessible manner in which they are presented ensures that the data can be used by the widest audience. I am looking forward to Irina’s tenure at JOSA A and the excellent work I am sure she will shepherd.

This year also saw the retirement of Johannes Courtial. Johannes was explicitly assigned to geometrical optics, but, in reality, he covered a broad range of topics, including design, singular optics, OAM beams, and more. During his time with JOSA A, he published six outstanding research papers with us [3–8], and I am looking forward to many more.

I will sorely miss Johannes’s deep insights coupled to his light-hearted style and good will. But once again we will turn the page and this time we find Jonathan Petruccelli to take over geometrical optics at JOSA A. Jonathan too brings much more to the position than expertise in geometrical optics and I am sure I will be calling on him to cover all manner of papers in phase space and coherence theory. When I have a question about Wigner functions, I invariably find myself reading one of Jonathan’s papers. Jonathan’s clear and careful writing as an author I am sure will translate to great editorial decisions.

Irina V. Larina

Biomedical Optics

Irina V. Larina is an Associate Professor at the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and a co-Director of the Optical Imaging and Vital Microscopy Core at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA. She received her Master’s Degree in Physics from the Saratov State University, Russia, in 1996, and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics and Bioengineering from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, USA, in 2005, and completed postdoctoral training at the Baylor College of Medicine. Her research focuses on the development of novel methods for intravital, optical imaging in mouse models to understand normal development and the nature of congenital defects and reproductive disorders in humans. She is a recipient of the Arthur V. Simmang Academic Scholarship for Excellence in Academic Achievement; the Ralph and Mary Spence Centennial Scholarship; the Katherina Siebert Award for Excellence in Oncologic Research; the Louis C. Sheppard Award; and a fellowship from the American Heart Association named in honor of Paula McCann-Harris, and is a finalist for the Burrows Wellcome Fund Award at Scientific Interface. She is an author of over 50 peer-reviewed publications and 11 book chapters.

Jonathan Petruccelli

Geometrical Optics and Coherence

Jonathan Petruccelli received his B.S. in Physics and B.A. in Mathematics in 2003 and a joint Ph.D. in Physics and Optics in 2010 from the University of Rochester, New York, USA. After graduation, he worked as a postdoctoral associate at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology and in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He joined the Department of Physics at the University at Albany, State University of New York, USA, in 2013, where he currently serves as an Associate Professor. His research interests include quantitative phase imaging with both visible light and x-rays as well as classical coherence theory. He has 23 peer-reviewed publications in these fields in a range of topics, including the impact of partial coherence on x-ray phase retrieval, illumination engineering in phase microscopy, and phase space representations for partially coherent fields.