Optica is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and carries out charitable activities. It currently has about 488,000 customers in 183 countries, including nearly 300 companies.
Leonard Mandel was an American physicist who contributed to the development of theoretical and experimental modern optics and is widely considered one of the founding fathers of the field of quantum optics. With Emil Wolf he published the highly regarded book Optical Coherence and Quantum Optics.
Optics Letters is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Optica. It was established in July 1977. The editor-in-chief is Miguel Alonso. The journal covers all topics pertaining to optics and photonics. Publishing formats are short and rapid communications, with articles being limited to four journal pages.
Applied Optics is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Optica three times a month. It was established in 1962 with John N. Howard as founding editor-in-chief and Patricia Wakeling as Managing Editor. Wakeling worked on the journal for over three decades. The editor-in-chief is Gisele Bennett. The journal covers all aspects of optics, photonics, imaging, and sensing. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2021 impact factor of 1.905.
Optics Express is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Optica. It was established in 1997. The journal reports on scientific and technology innovations in all aspects of optics and photonics. The Energy Express supplement reports research on the science and engineering of light and its impact on sustainable energy development, the environment, and green technologies. The editor-in-chief is James Leger.
Xi-Cheng Zhang is a Chinese-born American physicist, currently serving as the Parker Givens Chair of Optics at the University of Rochester, and the director of the Institute of Optics. He is also the Chairman of the Board and President of Zomega Terahertz Corporation.
The Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by IOP Publishing. It was established in 1968 from the division of the earlier title, Proceedings of the Physical Society. In 2006, the Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics was merged with the Journal of Physics B. The editor-in-chief is Marc Vrakking.
Chinese Optics Letters is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Optica. Established in 2003, it covers optics research originating in the People's Republic of China as well as coverage from groups outside the country.
Anthony Michael Johnson is an American experimental physicist, a professor of physics, and a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He is the director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research (CASPR), also situated on campus at UMBC. Since his election to the 2002 term as president of the Optical Society, formerly the Optical Society of America, Johnson has the distinction of being the first and only African-American president to date. Johnson's research interests include the ultrafast photophysics and nonlinear optical properties of bulk, nanostructured, and quantum well semiconductor structures, ultrashort pulse propagation in fibers and high-speed lightwave systems. His research has helped to better understand processes that occur in ultrafast time frames of 1 quadrillionth of a second. Ultrashort pulses of light have been used to address technical and logistical challenges in medicine, telecommunications, homeland security, and have many other applications that enhance contemporary life.
Gisele Bennett was a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Director of the GTRI Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). She also founded the Logistics and Maintenance Applied Research Center (LandMARC) at GTRI.
Biomedical Optics Express is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Optica. The journal's scope encompasses fundamental research and technology development of optics applied to biomedical studies and clinical applications. The founding and first editor-in-chief is Joseph A. Izatt. The current editor-in-chief is Ruikang (Ricky) Wang at the University of Washington, USA.
Brian J. Orr is an Australian scientist known for various experimental and theoretical contributions to molecular and optical physics, including laser spectroscopy and optical parametric oscillators.
Photonic Sensors is an international journal and has been available online as an Open Access publication since 2011. It is co-published quarterly by the University of Electronic Science & Technology of China (UESTC) and Springer. Photonic Sensors publishes original, peer-reviewed articles that report on new developments of interest to members of the photonics and sensor communities in all fields of photonic-sensing science and technology, including but not limited to topics on:
Optica is a monthly peer-reviewed open access scientific journal published by Optica. It covers the entire spectrum of theoretical and applied optics and photonics. It was established in July 2014. The founding editor-in-chief was Alexander Gaeta.
Donna Theo Strickland is a Canadian optical physicist and pioneer in the field of pulsed lasers. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, together with Gérard Mourou, for the practical implementation of chirped pulse amplification. She is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Govind P. Agrawal is an Indian American physicist and a fellow of Optica, Life Fellow of the IEEE, and Distinguished Fellow of the Optical Society of India. He is the recipient of James C. Wyant Professorship of Optics at the Institute of Optics and a professor of physics at the University of Rochester. He is also a Distinguished scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) in the University of Rochester. Agrawal has authored and co-authored several highly cited books in the fields of non-linear fiber optics, optical communications, and semiconductor lasers.
Peter J. Delfyett Jr is an American engineer and Pegasus Professor and Trustee Chair Professor of Optics, ECE & Physics at the University of Central Florida College of Optics and Photonics.
Alexander Luis Gaeta is an American physicist and the David M. Rickey Professor of Applied Physics at Columbia University. He is known for his work on quantum and nonlinear photonics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Optica, and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Demetrios N. Christodoulides is a United States physicist known for his work in quantum optics and nonlinear optics and photonics. He is currently the Steven and Kathryn Sample Chair in Engineering, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Southern California.
Randy Alan Bartels is an American investigator at the Morgridge Institute for Research and a professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has been awarded the Adolph Lomb Medal from the Optical Society of America, a National Science Foundation CAREER award, a Sloan Research Fellowship in physics, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, and a Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE). In 2020 and 2022, he received support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to develop microscope technologies for imaging tissues and cells.
