The International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL) may have concluded with the close of 2015, but there's still reason to celebrate: 2016 marks The Optical Society (OSA)'s centennial. OSA was launched to facilitate scientific collaboration, said society CEO Elizabeth Rogan: "Our founders saw the need to bring together the best scientific minds in industry and academia to share ideas in pursuit of technological breakthroughs." It's hard to say where the field would be without OSA's coalescing influence, but wouldn't Perley G. Nutting, the "applied optics" visionary who pursued its establishment for years and became founding president, be amazed to witness the fruits of optical scientists' collaboration? And to know that 270,000 folks are members today?
Commenting on the centennial, 2016 OSA president Alan E. Willner emphasized life sciences. "In the years ahead," he said, "the field of optics has tremendous potential to address challenges such as supporting health and medicine as well as the continued exponential growth of the Internet."
A life scientist is chairing the society's Centennial Advisory Panel: Chris Dainty, professorial research associate at Institute of Ophthalomology, University College London, has been working with staff and volunteers to develop a series of celebratory programs and products. Check out www.osa.org/en-us/100/osa100 and watch for activities throughout the year.
BioOptics World is grateful to OSA and all contributors. We think that, even considering its remarkable progress, Willner is correct to observe that, "We are only at the beginning of what optics technology can do."
