Alan Bergstein Group Publisher, (603) 891-9447; alanb@pennwell.com
W. Conard Holton Editor in Chief, (603) 891-9161; cholton@pennwell.com
Gail Overton Senior Editor, (603) 305-4756; gailo@pennwell.com
John Wallace Senior Editor, (603) 891-9228; johnw@pennwell.com
Julie MacShane Managing Editor; juliem@pennwell.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
David A. Belforte Industrial Lasers, (508) 347-9324; belforte@pennwell.com
Jeff Hecht Photonic Frontiers, (617) 965-3834; jeff@jeffhecht.com
Kristi Guillemette Marketing Manager
Meg Fuschetti Editorial Creative Director
Sheila Ward Production Manager
Chris Hipp Senior Illustrator
Debbie Bouley Audience Development Manager
Alison Boyer Ad Services Manager
SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES
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EDITORIAL OFFICES
Laser Focus World
Penn Well Corporation
98 Spit Brook Road, LL- 1, Nashua, NH 03062-5737
(603) 891-0123; fax (603) 891-0574
www.laserfocusworld.com
CORPORATE OFFICERS
Frank T. Lauinger Chairman
Robert F. Biolchini President / Chief
Executive Officer
Mark C. Wilmoth Chief Financial Officer /
Senior Vice President
TECHNOLOGY GROUP
Christine A. Shaw Senior Vice President /
Group Publishing Director
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Stephen G. Anderson, SPIE;
Dan Botez, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Walter Burgess, Power
Technology; Connie Chang-Hasnain,
UC Berkeley Center for Opto-electronic
Nanostructured Semiconductor
Technologies; Pat Edsell, Avanex;
Jason Eichenholz, Open Photonics;
Thomas Giallorenzi, Naval Research
Laboratory; Ron Gibbs, Ron Gibbs
Associates; Anthony M. Johnson,
Center for Advanced Studies in
Photonics Research, University of
Maryland Baltimore County;
Kenneth Kaufmann, Hamamatsu
Corp.; Larry Marshall, Southern Cross
Venture Partners; Jan Melles,
Photonics Investments;
Masahiro Joe Nagasawa, TEM Co. Ltd.;
David Richardson, University of
Southampton; Ralph A. Rotolante,
Vicon Infrared; Samuel Sadoulet,
Edmund Optics; Toby Strite,
IPG Photonics.
editor’s desk
W. Conard Holton
Associate Publisher/
Editor in Chief
cholton@pennwell.com
Surrounded by light
The UN designation of 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (light2015.
org) provides an excellent framework for highlighting the role and value of light in the world at large.
For those of us working within the photonics community of engineers and scientists, the value of light-based technologies is far more specific—the community is personally and professionally rewarding, and
a great place to do research and business.
Our cover story, the Annual Laser Market Review & Forecast, provides one explanation of why photonics is so rewarding: for the second consecutive year, global sales of lasers in 2015 are expected to
grow more than 6%, reaching $9.754 billion (see page 32). It’s not only the strengths of the laser market in traditional application areas like materials processing and communications that feed this growth,
but the continued development of new applications, from 3D printing and optogenetics to silicon photonics and the Internet of Things, as described in our SPIE Photonics West preview article (see page 52).
LFW at 50
As the applications for photonics technologies have grown, Laser Focus World has grown and changed,
yet remained true to the words of founding editor Bill Bushor, to be “a publication unlike any now in existence.” For a sense of that heritage, here are a few titles from the first issue, dated January 1, 1965, of the
newsletter then known as Laser Focus: “What are biomedicine’s laser needs?” “Laser aids in oil and gas
exploration,” “Laser beam’s interaction with metal explored,” and “Miniature laser integrating gyro bows
in”—not much of a stretch from these topics to the ones we cover now in every issue (and every day online).
Celebrating the 50th anniversary, Jeff Hecht, our long-time contributing editor and managing editor
of LFW from 1974–1981, is writing a year-long series looking back and looking forward for each major
category of technologies and products that we cover. His topic in this issue is optics—a core photonics
technology (see page 65).
Finally, to our loyal readers, thank you—you have been the foundation of our 50 years of success.
