In transition: a new journey
In transition: a new journey
Dear readers of Applied Physics B, after a little over 8 years, I am leaving the office of Editor-in-Chief. It has been a true professional as well as personal pleasure to work with the editorial board and our publisher to maintain this journal as a high-quality scientific repository by ensuring that decision-making was always based on scientific reasoning only—novelty and physical insight which is the ultimate interest of scientific authors. The stream of submissions has continued to evolve from its foundational topics on the laser itself and all variants of spectroscopy into an ever more widening range of applications enabled by photonic light sources and devices, rendering insight into many unexpected areas of physics for the Editor-in-Chief. Since lasers and photons are on their way to feed the leading technologies for the twenty-first century, this development will not stop. My best wishes are with Applied Physics B, Jacob Mackenzie, and its readers to take advantage of this excellent opportunity and further accompany scientific advances in the fields of Lasers and Optics!
As the incoming editor-in-chief, I see a daunting challenge ahead, though in part calmed by the excellent platform that has been built by my predecessors. Looking at the journey ahead reminds me of a time just over 2 decades ago when I wanted to research a change of direction in my career. Working then as an electro-optic engineer a few years out of university, I felt the need to return to academic pursuits and undertake a doctorate. At that time the only way I knew to explore the world of scientific literature was printed Abstracts archives in the library. Volumes and volumes lined the shelves, each covering a year of scientific publications for specific ranges of topics, requiring days of research just to uncover likely papers relevant to my field of interest, solid-state lasers. That was just the start of the process! Today, in seconds you can achieve what took days or weeks, just 25 years ago. The publishing landscape has been transformed dramatically and incredibly rapidly, along with so many other aspects of our daily lives, underpinned by lasers and optics that are driving the world wide web and are the core focus of this archival journal.
This year marks the 40th anniversary since the demarcation of the Springer-Verlag journal of Applied Physics into separate branches, Applied Physics A: Solids and Surfaces and Applied Physics B: Photophysics and Laser Chemistry, the latter changing the emphasis to Lasers and Optics in 1994. Founded and edited by H.K.V. Lotsch until 1995, the Editorship was then taken over by F. Träger until 2012 when the helm was passed to D. Meschede, all ably supported by T.W. Hänsch, who was a co-editor for 33 years (1983–2016) and who remains an Honorary Editor to this day. The journal’s ethos was, and still is, to be a leading international periodical capturing key experimental and theoretical breakthroughs in the science of photons. Notable exemplars include the first papers on the now indispensable laser phase and frequency stabilisation technique [1], the disc laser [2], carrier-envelope phase control in ultra-short pulses [3], and ground-state-depletion fluorescence microscopy [4], with further seminal papers ranging from femtosecond-laser nano-surgery [5], through Terahertz imaging [6], to laser wakefield acceleration [7].
Stringent peer review through editorial and scientists’ critique is fundamental in maintaining the quality and relevance of a journal and its content. We are proud to follow the guiding principle that this journal is steered by scientists for scientists, aiming to promulgate critical knowledge and insight within the field of lasers and optics. Our editorial board has a broad depth of expertise covering wide-ranging topics within the field and who will continue to strive for excellence in the selection of submissions for publishing.
Mackenzie, Jacob
1d82c826-fdbf-425b-ac04-be43ccf12008
6 March 2021
Mackenzie, Jacob
1d82c826-fdbf-425b-ac04-be43ccf12008
Abstract
Dear readers of Applied Physics B, after a little over 8 years, I am leaving the office of Editor-in-Chief. It has been a true professional as well as personal pleasure to work with the editorial board and our publisher to maintain this journal as a high-quality scientific repository by ensuring that decision-making was always based on scientific reasoning only—novelty and physical insight which is the ultimate interest of scientific authors. The stream of submissions has continued to evolve from its foundational topics on the laser itself and all variants of spectroscopy into an ever more widening range of applications enabled by photonic light sources and devices, rendering insight into many unexpected areas of physics for the Editor-in-Chief. Since lasers and photons are on their way to feed the leading technologies for the twenty-first century, this development will not stop. My best wishes are with Applied Physics B, Jacob Mackenzie, and its readers to take advantage of this excellent opportunity and further accompany scientific advances in the fields of Lasers and Optics!
As the incoming editor-in-chief, I see a daunting challenge ahead, though in part calmed by the excellent platform that has been built by my predecessors. Looking at the journey ahead reminds me of a time just over 2 decades ago when I wanted to research a change of direction in my career. Working then as an electro-optic engineer a few years out of university, I felt the need to return to academic pursuits and undertake a doctorate. At that time the only way I knew to explore the world of scientific literature was printed Abstracts archives in the library. Volumes and volumes lined the shelves, each covering a year of scientific publications for specific ranges of topics, requiring days of research just to uncover likely papers relevant to my field of interest, solid-state lasers. That was just the start of the process! Today, in seconds you can achieve what took days or weeks, just 25 years ago. The publishing landscape has been transformed dramatically and incredibly rapidly, along with so many other aspects of our daily lives, underpinned by lasers and optics that are driving the world wide web and are the core focus of this archival journal.
This year marks the 40th anniversary since the demarcation of the Springer-Verlag journal of Applied Physics into separate branches, Applied Physics A: Solids and Surfaces and Applied Physics B: Photophysics and Laser Chemistry, the latter changing the emphasis to Lasers and Optics in 1994. Founded and edited by H.K.V. Lotsch until 1995, the Editorship was then taken over by F. Träger until 2012 when the helm was passed to D. Meschede, all ably supported by T.W. Hänsch, who was a co-editor for 33 years (1983–2016) and who remains an Honorary Editor to this day. The journal’s ethos was, and still is, to be a leading international periodical capturing key experimental and theoretical breakthroughs in the science of photons. Notable exemplars include the first papers on the now indispensable laser phase and frequency stabilisation technique [1], the disc laser [2], carrier-envelope phase control in ultra-short pulses [3], and ground-state-depletion fluorescence microscopy [4], with further seminal papers ranging from femtosecond-laser nano-surgery [5], through Terahertz imaging [6], to laser wakefield acceleration [7].
Stringent peer review through editorial and scientists’ critique is fundamental in maintaining the quality and relevance of a journal and its content. We are proud to follow the guiding principle that this journal is steered by scientists for scientists, aiming to promulgate critical knowledge and insight within the field of lasers and optics. Our editorial board has a broad depth of expertise covering wide-ranging topics within the field and who will continue to strive for excellence in the selection of submissions for publishing.
Text
Editorial 2021 Mackenzie Meschede
- Author's Original
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Accepted/In Press date: 15 February 2021
Published date: 6 March 2021
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 448935
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/448935
ISSN: 0946-2171
PURE UUID: de1de472-539b-409b-a7a0-d2f447d7351a
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Date deposited: 11 May 2021 16:48
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:51
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Corporate Author: Dieter Meschede
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