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Thank you for attending the 2025 APOMA Annual Meeting!
At Photonics West 2025 in San Francisco, CA last month, APOMA held its Annual Meeting. There was great turnout by our membership for the meeting and a lot to discuss:
· Results of the recent election for the 2 At-Large Board seats
· Leadership Transition
· Announcement for the Consultant opportunity
· Walter Czajkowski Scholarship
· Guest Speakers
If you were unable to attend, the full meeting presentation can be found on the APOMA website at: APOMA Annual Meeting PDF
There continues to be significant interest in joining the Board from membership and that showed in the most recent Board member election. For the 2 open At-Large seats, there were 6 candidates that stepped forward:
· Nicholas Bilis – Ohara Corporation
· Bill Donovan – Thorlabs
· John Escolas – Escolas Optics Consulting
· David O’Ryan – Ecoclean
· Brian Myer – Optimax
· David Shelton – AmeriCOM
The membership voted in favor of David Shelton and Brian Myer becoming the newest Board members. Please congratulate David and Brian on joining the Board, we look forward to their contributions to the continued growth of APOMA over the next two years. We would also like to thank all the candidates for their interest and support! To view the full 2025 APOMA Board of Directors, please click HERE.
Every 2 years, there is a transfer in leadership for APOMA and 2025 was that year! APOMA President Lee Steneken has served his 2-year term and turned over the role of President to Zachary Hobbs (photo above). Lee will transition to Past-President and Timothy Kennedy has been chosen as the next President-Elect. We want to thank Lee for his service to APOMA over the last 6 years as President-Elect and then President. The Board would also like to recognize and thank Steve Rowe from Esco for his contributions during Lee’s tenure as President.
The optics community has lost some very influential members recently, and APOMA wanted to recognize the contributions of one of our former Board members during our meeting, Walter Czajkowski. Walt spent his long career in optics at Eastman Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, and Edmund Optics and was a mentor to many at each company that he worked at over his 45-year career in optics. Walt served on the APOMA Board as a manufacturing consultant from 1996 until 2016, where he continued to help shape the trajectory of our industry. In collaboration with SPIE and the Czajkowski family, APOMA will be establishing the Walter Czajkowski Scholarship to commemorate Walt’s spirit and dedication to the optics industry. More information about this scholarship will be forthcoming in the near future.
We would like to thank our guest speakers for presenting during the Annual Meeting:
· Dr. Tayyab Suratwala, Program Director for Optics and Materials Science & Technology (OMST) in the NIF & Photon Science Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory talked about NIF optics and the latest progress at NIF.
· Patrick Augino, Executive Director of OEOSC, discussed updates from the ISO meeting that was hosted by OEOSC in Boulder, Colorado in October 2024.
· Dr. Alexis Vogt, tenured Professor of Optics and endowed Chair of the Optical Systems Technology program at Monroe Community College (MCC), spoke about the current state of apprenticeship engagement at MCC and throughout the industry.
In Memoriam
The optics community lost another influential member on February 10, 2025, with the passing of Jay Kumler. Jay was a lifelong member of the optics community, starting his career at United Technologies and Bell Laboratories before founding Coastal Optical Systems which was later acquired by Jenoptik, where he most recently served as President of Jenoptik North America. During his time at Jenoptik, Jay also served as President of APOMA. The APOMA Board and membership sends it’s condolences to Jay’s family and friends, his obituary is linked below. Jay will be greatly missed.
Jay Kumler Obituary (2025) - Dallas, TX - Aria Cremation Service and Funeral Home - Northwest Highway
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