It is hard to believe that nearly six months have passed since I stepped into the position of editor-in-chief (EiC). Last year when I was notified of the honor to be appointed as EiC for Applied Optics, I was thrilled for many reasons: (1) Applied Optics was one of the first journals I was introduced to as a graduate student because my advisor Bill Rhodes was EiC and (2) my career path was focused on applied optics research, thus making the articles and feature issues in Applied Optics relevant to my research work. The excitement of my appointment to EiC for Applied Optics was followed by the realization that this could be one of the most difficult times to step into this role. Universities were essentially closed, or severely limiting access to research labs, and industry was struggling with work at home conditions. Even with limited access to resources, combined with distractions of our societal challenges with the virus, Applied Optics published more papers in 2020 than the prior year.

I would be remiss if I do not acknowledge the many advisors, mentors, and classmates who have been EiCs. Bill Rhodes, Glenn Borman, Joe Mait, and Ron Driggers. I still remember the early days when coauthoring papers with Bill Rhodes and receiving his edits that had more red markings than the black text in the paper. This engagement with my advisor set a precedence of the importance of publishing, being clear in communicating a concept, and adding value to the scientific community. My master’s thesis advisor, Ron Phillips, emphasized early in my career to publish. Glenn Borman taught me the importance of attending conferences and engaging with the participants to broaden your horizons. Joe Mait and Ron Driggers have been inspirational colleagues and friends throughout my career. I feel extremely fortunate that our paths have crossed all these decades. It is the activities with our professional societies that allow for these encounters and continued contact with long-time colleagues and friends as well as provide the ability to meet others with similar interests.

I believe editorials should provide insight into the past and a vision for the future of publishing and other matters related to professional engagement. When I interviewed for this position, one of the most memorable questions I was asked was ‘What does Applied Optics mean to me and the community?” As I already mentioned, Applied Optics became important to me early in my career. For the community, Applied Optics is a forum for publishing high quality applied and basic research from a diverse set of authors representing academia, industry, and government research labs. In addition, Applied Optics has the advantage of introducing Engineering and Laboratory Notes (E&L Notes), which provide a venue for sharing best practices. No other journal provides the focus of applied research results with such a diverse community base. This diversity and richness for our community is my vision for the continued growth of the Journal.

I would like to acknowledge the outstanding work that Ron Driggers accomplished during his tenure as the outgoing EiC. Ron was able to achieve a greater outreach to the community through feature issues, institutional focus issues, and relaunching E&L Notes, the median time-to-publication remained at 95 days or less, and he diversified the topical editors to better represent our community. Finally, I would like to thank our Editorial Board, authors, reviewers, and especially the OSA publishing staff, who are all essential to making Applied Optics a valuable resource for the scientific community.