Alan Willner Elected OSA VP

Alan E. Willner of the University of Southern California has been elected as The Optical Society’s (OSA) 2014 vice president. Three directors at large were also chosen at this year’s election, held at the society’s annual meeting in Orlando this week.

By accepting the vice presidency, Willner makes a four-year commitment to serve on the OSA board of directors; he will serve one year as vice president and one year as president elect. That means he will serve as president during OSA’s 100th anniversary year in 2016.

Willner previously served on the OSA board from 2002 to 2003 and co-chaired the Science & Engineering Council. His numerous awards and honors include the OSA Paul Forman Engineering Excellence Award and Robert Hopkins Leadership Award; IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award, Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award and Distinguished Lecturer Award; and the SPIE President’s Award.

He has also served as president of the IEEE Photonics Society, co-chair of the US National Academies Study on Optics & Photonics, and editor-in-chief of three international optics journals, including OSA’s Optics Letters. Willner has more than 1000 publications, and 24 US patents, on his research in optical communications, signal processing and networks. He joined the University of Southern California in 1992 and is currently the Steven & Kathryn Sample Chaired Professor in Engineering.

“Alan’s approach to service in the optics and photonics community is one of inclusiveness and cooperation with a capacity to find consensus on the most critical of issues,” said OSA CEO Elizabeth Rogan. “The year of his presidency will be a momentous one as we celebrate OSA’s centennial anniversary. OSA is honored that Alan is willing to invest his time in this role and appreciate the leadership he will bring to the community.”

The society also confirmed the appointment of George Bayz as its treasurer. Bayz, who is currently a member of the OSA board of directors, will replace Stephen D. Fantone, whose term ends on Dec. 31. As Treasurer, Bayz will be responsible for chairing finance, audit and investment subcommittee governance groups, as well as participating in various strategic roles.

Bayz has more than 18 years of senior management experience in high-technology firms and more than 37 years of business experience. He is currently vice president and general manager of the Optical Solutions Group at Synopsys. Prior to Synopsys’ acquisition of Optical Research Associates (ORA) in 2010, Bayz was president and CEO of ORA, and had served on the ORA board of directors and audit committee since 1999.

Three directors at large elected to OSA this year are Anne Tropper of the University of Southampton, England; Adam Wax of Duke University in North Carolina; and Xi-Cheng Zhang of the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester in New York. They, as well as Willner and Bayz, will begin their terms on Jan 1.

For more information, visit: www.osa.org