Dr. Benjamin Dingel is stepping down as senior editor at Optical Engineering after seventeen years of service to the journal. Dingel first joined us as an associate editor in 2006 and became senior editor in 2015, overseeing our journal’s papers in the topical area of optical communications and fiber optics, a key area of importance. As senior editor, Dingel plays an important role in our initial evaluation of submitted papers and assigning them to the right associate editor who has the necessary knowledge and expertise to conduct peer review.

His experience spans both the academic and industry. He serves as the Scientific Technical Lead at Nasfine Photonics, a defense and space manufacturing company headquartered in Painted Post, New York. He has also been affiliated with Loyola School’s Department of Physics and with the City College of New York. Recently he was appointed as a research fellow at the Ateneo Research Institute of Science and Engineering (SOSE-ARISE), the same institution where he graduated with a BS in physics. He pursued his master’s and doctorate degrees in applied physics at Osaka University.

I would like to extend my personal thanks to Ben for his service to the journal. I have appreciated his knowledge and expertise in this essential area of optics. I wish him continued health and good fortune in his future endeavors.

We would like to welcome our new senior editor, Dr. Szymon Gładysz. He is head of the Adaptive Optics Group at Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation in Ettlingen, Germany. He obtained his PhD in physics from University of Galway in Ireland in 2007. He has since worked in Ireland, Germany, Israel, and the US on topics related to optical instrumentation, image processing, and laser beam propagation through random media. He joined Fraunhofer IOSB in 2012 and currently leads research which focuses on imaging and communications through atmospheric and underwater turbulence. He has been awarded several awards and grants, e.g. from University of California, US Air Force, and US Navy. He authored or co-authored over 150 publications on turbulence and adaptive optics in journals and conference proceedings. He currently chairs NATO SET-304 “Modeling, Measuring and Mitigating Optical Turbulence: M3T” and additionally serves as conference chair and committee member on various OSA and SPIE meetings. Gładysz joined our board as an associate editor after serving as guest editor for Optical Engineering (SPIE, in 2016/2017) and Journal of Applied Remote Sensing (SPIE, in 2017/2018). We are glad to have him joining our board as senior editor.