I am delighted to accept the responsibility of leading the Journal of the Optical Society of America A and to join the Optica Publishing Group Board of Editors, starting January 2022.

First and foremost, I invite our readers and authors to join me in celebrating the excellence that the team of editors under the direction of P. Scott Carney (Editor-in-Chief (EiC) 2016–2021) has maintained, in both the publication process and the published output. Notwithstanding strong competition from almost a hundred optics-focused journals worldwide and the additional stresses induced by the pandemic, the editorial team did a wonderful job in delivering its core service to the classical optics community. They have also responded to the rapidly evolving scientific publishing landscape by ensuring that the Journal supports interdisciplinary collaborative work, keeps the readers informed of recent trends, and promotes diversity and inclusion with an impressive gender balance among the topical editors.

Looking further into the past, I’d also like to take the opportunity to recognize the outstanding editorial work of Franco Gori (EiC 2009–2015), who redefined JOSA A’s long-term strategy and set a remarkably high standard for its operation. Indeed, the introduction of discussion and tutorial articles has distinguished our journal by delivering a strong educational component to the optics community. Bravo, Franco!

I am excited to begin my work just a few months after The Optical Society (OSA) changed its name to Optica, the society advancing optics and photonics worldwide. This was an inevitable, long-due move that has sealed de jure the society’s decades-long transition from Americas-oriented coverage to a de facto global presence. With even stronger enthusiasm I embrace the decision of preserving JOSA A’s original title, which underlines the Journal’s unique history. Indeed, the Journal of the Optical Society of America, established in 1917, together with its two daughter journals, JOSA A and JOSA B, appears to be the oldest optics-based title in the world that has maintained the same name, language, country of operation, and funding source without interruption. This is in striking contrast to some titles that either vanished or had to survive drastic changes [1]. Due to its unprecedented continuity, the world’s history itself can be studied from the JOSA family archive: the two world wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and globalization are all reflected in its articles and editorials as well as in the statistics of submissions from various years and regions. The JOSA family archive is and will remain the longue durée of natural sciences [2]. I begin my editorial navigation with a deep appreciation of this legacy.

JOSA A’s scope currently spans the broad field of classical optics, with a special accent on image science and vision, a research domain that has always been of paramount importance for technological progress. It is even more so today, as optical information transfer becomes one of the cornerstones of the fourth industrial revolution, providing grounds for a number of emerging technologies, e.g., augmented reality and self-driving vehicles [3]. As EiC of JOSA A, I will aim to identify and support areas in optics that are at the scientific root of such developments.

The Optica Publishing Group journals benefit greatly from their close coordination with each other, which is practically manifested in joint feature issues covering different facets of complex research topics. JOSA A has enjoyed a number of successful joint issues with JOSA B and Applied Optics. I am looking forward to working with the EiCs of these journals, Kurt Busch and Gisele Bennett, respectively, and potentially with other editors on a variety of joint issues, addressing the needs of the optics community for multidisciplinary research.

To summarize, my strategic vision for JOSA A’s near future is the following. Our editorial team will capitalize on the unique standing of the Journal in the optics community, on the continuity of trends from previous years, and on joint projects with other Optica Publishing Group journals, to widen and deepen JOSA A’s presence in a set of existing and emerging research areas in classical optical science and related technologies, and to increase, enhance, and diversify its authorship and readership, worldwide.

I am eager to extend my support to everyone interested in publishing on classical optics under the JOSA A umbrella. Whether you are a reader or an author, or both, with a bright idea for an exciting publication endeavor, please feel free to get in touch with me, with our Feature Editor Johannes Courtial, or with one of our Topical Editors working close to your research area.