A letter from the SPIE President

The SPIE Board of Directors and leadership hope this message finds you, your families, and your colleagues healthy and in good spirits. Our hearts go out to all of those affected during this global pandemic.

We, like all of you, are watching and listening to official health and safety recommendations and responding as quickly as possible. This is why SPIE has, for the first time in history, cancelled our events scheduled through at least 31 August 2020. These are truly uncharted waters for us all, in both our personal and professional lives.

Our SPIE staff are working tirelessly to respond to these changes. We give them a sincere thank you. Washington State (USA), where SPIE headquarters is located, saw the earliest outbreak in the United States. Fortunately, at this time, no SPIE staff are ill. However, staff are balancing family priorities and local response requirements while still working to fulfill the SPIE mission of supporting the optics and photonics community with conferences, exhibitions, publications, education offerings, and community support. Most staff are now working from home and appreciate your understanding as they work through the numerous activities and responses.

SPIE conferences feel like family gatherings to many of us, and we will all miss the reunions with our colleagues and the opportunities to create new friendships. Please remember to reach out in other ways and keep your community vibrant and connected. SPIE is actively working on ways to help to assist this communication and dissemination of research.

Thank you for your support, patience and continued engagement with SPIE. After this crisis passes, we look forward to gathering our community together for productive and enjoyable events where you and other scientists, engineers, students, researchers, and businesspeople will help create the future.

John Greivenkamp
2020 SPIE President