It is becoming a tradition for me to summarize JOSA A’s accomplishments and to unveil some of our future plans in a yearly editorial, and I would like to keep doing so throughout my tenure. Our editorial team and Optica Publishing Group staff had a busy yet exciting year in 2023. On their behalf, I would like to send the warmest greetings to our readers, authors, and reviewers. I also share my deepest wish of peace with our colleagues around the world.

I am pleased with the Journal’s solid output last year: the total number of published articles slightly exceeded 300 and the time to publication was about 100 days (both numbers have changed very little from 2022). Our team will continue working on optimizing the peer-review process and on balancing its quality and speed.

In 2023, we managed to put together three successful feature issues that typically go out on a yearly or bi-yearly basis: Color Vision [1], Digital Holography and 3D Imaging (jointly with Applied Optics) [2], and Visual and Physiological Optics (jointly with Biomedical Optics Express) [3]. The Color Vision issue was particularly successful, attracting 29 articles. In addition, we organized a regional feature issue, Optics in South America (jointly with JOSA B) [4], which brought 56 articles in total (25 in JOSA A) from the leading research groups in seven countries of this region. Our immediate-future plans include several new feature issues: Atmospheric and Oceanic Optics (jointly with Applied Optics), linked with Optica’s Imaging Congress conference pcAOP [5]; Quantitative Phase Imaging (in memory of Prof. Gabriel Popescu) [6]; and Classical Optics in Japan. The latter is still in development and will continue the theme of country-based issues, after Classical Optics in France from 2019 [7].

We make particular efforts to have broad-scope and high-quality special articles. JOSA A’s tutorials are particularly popular among readers. Last year, we published three tutorials [8–10]. We also launched retrospectives, a new article type that highlights the connections between research of the past and present. A retrospective is conceptually different from a typical historical article as it delivers a comprehensive scientific account of a theoretical method or a technology [11]. We have already published two retrospectives [12,13] and extended several other invitations.

JOSA A’s Emerging Researcher Best Paper Prize has been awarded for several years. In 2023, the prize went to Amala Raj [14] for her first-author contribution to a paper investigating optical particles trapping in a dual-beam atmospheric channel by masterfully combining related theory, computer simulations, and experiments [15]. Currently, our Deputy Editor Markus Testorf chairs the prize selection committee, which consists of a subset of our topical editors (on a rotating basis) and the previous year’s prize winner. We are excited about recognizing up-and-coming researchers this way and are determined to continue with it in the future.

I will now highlight recent changes in the editorial board. First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly recognize the contributions of three topical editors who finished their terms in 2023: Alessandro Rizza (Color and Vision), Jennifer Hunter (Eye Optics), and Izabela Naydenova (Diffraction and Gratings). I truly enjoyed our discussions about science and scientific publishing, and I acknowledge that your insights have helped us a lot in the Journal’s development.

During the last year, our editorial board was strengthened by inviting a new Feature Editor. Svetlana Avramov-Zamurovic (U.S. Naval Academy), whose second term as a topical editor at JOSA A was about to end, has agreed to take on the role. Her enthusiasm and great networking skills should help the Journal strategically expand on the breadth and quality of the feature issues and special articles. I am also excited about bringing to the board four new topical editors. Michela Lecca (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy) now manages peer reviews in color and vision, one of the most important areas of our coverage. Yalçin Ata (Ostim Technical University, Turkey) is the editor in the broad field of atmospheric and oceanic optics. Mircea Mujat (Physical Sciences Inc., USA) is our sole editor on eye optics and is also an expert on phase/polarization imaging. Suzanne Martin (Technological University Dublin, Ireland) now handles peer review in diffraction and gratings.

Brief biographical sketches of the new editors are included below. I am sure you will join me in welcoming them to the board. I know I will appreciate their contributions to JOSA A, and to the community we serve, in 2024 and beyond.

Feature Editor

Svetlana Avramov-Zamurovic

Svetlana Avramov-Zamurovic is a Professor in the Weapons, Robotics, and Control Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy, Maryland, USA. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, in 1986 and 1990, respectively, and her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, USA, in 1994. Her research interests are in laser light propagation in maritime environments. She studies structured light properties in the atmosphere and underwater. Dr. Avramov-Zamurovic serves as a head of the U.S. Naval Academy’s Laser Lab and has extensive experience in conducting experiments in the laboratory and the field. She develops Multiphysics models simulating the interaction of structured light with particles and generation of optical turbulence by natural convection. She integrates machine learning algorithms in her studies of optical communications systems. In addition to laser research, she has been involved in the metrology of electrical impedance and nanotechnology at the National Institute of Standards and Technology since 1990. She has published more than 130 journal and conference papers over the course of her career.

Topical Editors

Michela Lecca

Color Vision

Michela Lecca is a Researcher with the Fondazione Bruno Kessler Digital Industry Center, Italy, in the Research Unit “Technologies of Vision.” She studied mathematics at the University of Trento, Italy. After graduation, she began research on computer vision, focusing on automatic color image retrieval and labeling and color object recognition. The analysis of color features and of their dependence on illumination led her to her current research on Retinex theory, machine color constancy, and mathematical models for color correction and illuminant invariant color image processing. She also works on low-level processing of both gray and color images for low-power, smart imaging systems, which represent a key component of next-generation green technology. Dr. Lecca reviews for several international computer science journals and conferences and is a member of the Italian Association for Computer Vision, Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning.

Yalçın Ata

Atmospheric and Oceanic Optics

Yalçın Ata is a Full Professor at the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department, OSTIM Technical University, Turkey. He received his M.Sc. from Gebze Technical University, Turkey, in 2000 and his Ph.D. from Gazi University, Turkey, in 2010. Between 2004 and 2020, he worked as a Senior Researcher, Chief Researcher, and Deputy Director at TUBITAK Defense Industries Research and Development Institute and TUBITAK Space Technologies Research Institute, Turkey. His research interests include optical wireless communication, free space optics, optical turbulence in atmosphere, underwater and biological tissue, and beam propagation in turbulent media. He has published over 80 journal and conference papers related to his research areas.

Mircea Mujat

Eye Optics

Mircea Mujat received his Ph.D. in Optics at the University of Central Florida, College of Optics and Photonics, USA, in 2004. He continued his activity as a Research Fellow with Harvard Medical School, USA, and Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, and is currently a Principal Research Scientist with Physical Sciences Inc., USA. His current research interests include high-resolution retinal imaging (i.e., optical coherence tomography, scanning laser ophthalmoscopy, adaptive optics), phase contrast imaging, confocal and polarization microscopy, polarized light scattering, and biomedical applications of lasers. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers and is a Fellow of Optica and a Senior Member of SPIE.

Suzanne Martin

Diffraction, Gratings and Holographic Methods

Suzanne Martin is Manager for the Centre for Industrial and Engineering Optics at Technological University Dublin, Ireland, and also Principal Investigator for the Holographic Optical Elements Group within it. She has over 25 years of experience in holographic materials and devices research. She earned her Ph.D. jointly from Trinity College Dublin and Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland. Her current research interests are in the development of new photopolymer materials, fabrication and testing of holographic/diffractive optical elements, design and construction of holographic patterning systems, and modeling diffraction behavior. She has supervised seven Ph.D. and two M.Sc. theses and has published more than 100 papers, including 54 peer-reviewed journal papers. She also has experience in technology transfer in photonic materials and devices and research center management (strategic and operational).