It is of vital importance to Laser Focus World—and the multidisciplinary photonics community that we represent—to recognize excellence in the early career of individuals. To that end, Laser Focus World is pleased to announce our inaugural Rising Stars Awards program. The program was developed to celebrate young professionals in the photonics industry who have shown a dedication to the field and are on a path toward leadership in the future.
Laser Focus World Rising Stars Awards is now accepting nominations! The nomination deadline is May 24, 2021. There is no fee for submissions. Colleagues who will be 39 years of age or younger as of December 31, 2021 are eligible to be nominated. Just tell us why your nominee should be named as an honoree, including:
- Outstanding attributes
- Involvement and contribution to the industry
- Innovation
While no candidate may possess all criteria, we are looking to reward those who deserve recognition for their efforts. Upon selection, the winners will be contacted directly by Laser Focus World magazine. We look forward to hearing their perspectives and honoring Rising Stars recipients on laserfocusworld.com and within the pages of Laser Focus World magazine.
We hope you will join us in recognizing a new generation of leaders, so please submit your nominations today.

John Lewis | Editor in Chief (2018-2021)
John Lewis served as Editor in Chief of Laser Focus World from August 2018 through October 2021, after having served as the Editor in Chief of Vision Systems Design from 2016 to 2018. He has technical, industry, and journalistic qualifications, with more than 13 years of progressive content development experience working at Cognex Corporation. Prior to Cognex where his articles on machine vision were published in dozens of trade journals, he was a technical editor for Design News, covering automation, machine vision, and other engineering topics, for over six years.