Joseph N. Mait received his BSEE from the University of Virginia in 1979 and received his graduate degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology, his MSEE in 1980, and his PhD in 1985. He started his career as an educator, holding a number of positions at the University of Virginia, the University of Maryland, College Park, and Duke University. He has also held visiting positions at the Lehrstuhl für Angewandte Optik, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University in Washington DC, and the Leibniz Institute for Photonic Technologies, Germany.

He later transitioned to the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and, after 30 years of federal service, retired in 2018 as a Senior Technical Researcher (ST). As ARL’s Chief Scientist from 2013 to 2017, he was responsible for the laboratory’s technical forecasting and strategic vision. Today, he works part-time for the University of Delaware and teaches optics as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland and the University of Rochester.

Mait has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Rank Award in 2014, two ARL Commander’s Awards, and the ARL Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is a Fellow of Optica and SPIE, and a senior life member of IEEE. He is a former Editor-in-Chief of Applied Optics and chaired Optica’s Board of Editors for an unprecedented five years. In 2024, he received Optica’s Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award, “For decades of dedicated service and leadership across multiple Optica programs, including introducing innovative programs that support diversity, equity, and inclusion awareness processes for Optica publications and conferences.”