JOSA A is well known as an archival journal serving scientists at all stages of their careers. In 2018 we started a tradition of highlighting the work of emerging researchers that publish in the Journal with the Emerging Researcher Best Paper Prize. It is our absolute pleasure to announce the recipient of the prize for 2022.

The winning paper is “Orbital dynamics at atmospheric pressure in a lensed dual-beam optical trap” [1], written by Amala Raj, from Indiana University Bloomington, and her colleagues. Their article describes how they developed a theoretical model for optical traps with counter-propagating beams. They used numerical simulations as well as experiments to study the orbital dynamics of dielectric particles and identify conditions for controlling particle motion with high precision. The committee was particularly impressed by the clarity with which the research was communicated. With remarkable balance, the paper provides sufficient and necessary information about both the experimental design and the numerical model, and complements this with a comprehensive and convincing discussion of the results.

Amala Raj

Amala Raj is a fifth-year graduate student in the chemistry department at Indiana University Bloomington, USA. Her research work, under the supervision of Dr. Bogdan Dragnea, focuses on experimental and theoretical investigations of optical characteristics linked to mesoscopic particles. A native of Kerala, India, Amala graduated from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali in 2018 with a BS-MS in chemistry. Her master’s research, under the guidance of Dr. K. S. Viswanathan, involved matrix-isolation studies of non-covalent interactions.

The prize recognizes an early-career researcher (within five years of earning their highest degree) who is the first author of a paper judged to be outstanding. The selection committee was chaired by Deputy Editor Markus Testorf and included topical editors Svetlana Avramov-Zamurovic, Yangjian Cai, and Jonathan Petruccelli and 2021 prize recipient Roi Ronen. They were responsible for identifying a winner from among all the papers published in 2022 based on criteria including the scientific significance, quality, and presentation of the results.

Please join us in congratulating Amala on her selection as the winner of the 2022 JOSA A Emerging Researcher Best Paper Prize!