2021 Distinguished Service Award Winner

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The Optical Society Names Anthony M. Johnson the 2021 Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award Recipient

The Optical Society is pleased to announce that Anthony M. Johnson, University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), USA, has been selected as the 2021 recipient of the Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award. Johnson is honored for decades of principled leadership and steadfast service to The Optical Society and to the optics community, and especially for serving as a tireless ambassador for OSA.

Anthony M. Johnson received his B.S. degree from the Polytechnic Institute of New York, USA, and his Ph.D. from City College of New York, USA. After spending 14 years with AT&T Bell Laboratories, USA, Johnson served as chairperson and distinguished professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA. Today, he is director of the Center for Advanced Study in Photonics Research and Professor in the Departments of Physics and Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the UMBC.

Johnson has served in numerous leadership roles for OSA, including Director-at-Large on OSA's Board of Directors, chair of the Women & Minorities Committee, and chair of the Awards Council. He was the 2002 OSA President, and continues to remain active with OSA. He currently sits on the Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC) and serves as a member of the OSA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Rapid Action Committee (DEI RAC). In addition to his service to OSA, Johnson is an active leader in the National Society of Black Physicists, American Physical Society (APS), and IEEE, and he supported the African Laser Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences Network (LAM Network) by establishing the African Optics and Photonics Society.

He is recipient of the 1996 Edward A. Bouchet Award from APS. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from City College of the City University of New York, USA. Johnson is a Fellow of OSA, APS, IEEE, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Society of Black Physicists.

Established in 1973, the Distinguished Service Award is presented to individuals who, over an extended period of time, have served the Society in an outstanding way, especially through volunteer participation in its management, operation or planning in such ways as editorship of a periodical, organization of meetings, or other service to the Society. The award was created in memory of Stephen M. MacNeille, and was named in honor of Stephen D. Fantone in 2013. It is endowed by the American Optical Corporation and contributions from individual members.