Photonics Media Appoints Michael Wheeler and James Schlett to Key Editorial Posts

Photonics Media has appointed a new editorial team for its four business-to-business publications focused on photonic technologies including lasers, optics, imaging, sensors & detectors and more.

The appointments were announced today by Photonics Media Group Publisher Karen A. Newman.

The company’s two new editors, who together have more than three decades of experience in journalism, public relations and marketing communications, will be responsible for bringing the latest global photonics industry news and technical features to an audience of 185,000 readers worldwide.

Veteran technology writer Michael Wheeler has been appointed managing editor for Photonics Media’s print publications, with direct responsibility for the company’s flagship magazine, Photonics Spectra and for EuroPhotonics, which is focused on the photonics industry in Europe.

In his new position, Wheeler will supervise editors and freelance writers, direct scheduling, and oversee content prior to publication.

Prior to joining Photonics Media, Wheeler served as a communications leader for SABIC Innovative Plastics and as communications director for Wave Systems. During the late 1990s he was a news editor for Photonics Spectra, earning awards from the American Society of Business Press Editors for features he authored on photonics applications in defense and law enforcement.

Also joining the editorial team is James Schlett who assumes direct responsibility for the content of BioPhotonics magazine, the industry’s only biophotonics publication, and the company’s newest publication, Industrial Photonics. Schlett most recently was a business development writer for Tully Rinckey PLLC, a mid-sized law firm in Albany, N.Y. An award-winning journalist, he covered business for The Daily Gazette in Schenectady and was a staff writer for the Westerly Sun and The Watertown Daily Times. He is the author of A Not Too Greatly Changed Eden: The Story of the Philosophers’ Camp in the Adirondacks, published last year by Cornell University Press.

“These editors have broad experience reporting on and communicating about technology – including photonics – as well as about business and industry,” said Newman. “What they bring to their roles will be an important part of our ongoing effort to enhance and build the Photonics Media brand and underscore our longstanding commitment to serving the needs of our readers.”

Photonics Spectra will celebrate 50 years of publication in 2017. The magazine was launched as Optical Spectra in 1967, in response to a need that company founder Teddi Laurin saw for a trade magazine to serve the optical industry. She felt that by producing high-quality, informative publications, Laurin Publishing could help foster the growth and success of the industry. She believed that by keeping everyone in the community informed and educated, all would thrive.