The Optical Society of America (OSA) has announced that Professor Christopher Dainty of NUI Galway has been elected as its 2009 vice president. As vice president, Professor Dainty will automatically become president-elect in 2010 and then the society s president in 2011, followed by a one-year term as past president. Christopher Dainty holds the chair of applied physics in the School of Physics at the NUI Galway and has been active in the global optics community for several decades. He was recently elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy. President of NUI Galway, Dr James J. Browne, said: "I would like to congratulate Professor Dainty on his election to the post of Vice-President and President elect of the OSA. This is a fitting recognition of his contribution to the science of optics and adds lustre to his own reputation, that of his research group and indeed of the University. NUI Galway is proud to count Professor Dainty as one of its academic staff.' A Fellow of OSA, Dainty has been an OSA member since 1971. With widespread participation in OSA activities, he has been involved with topical meetings, awards and has been a two-time past member of the Board of Directors. In addition, Dainty has provided technical expertise to the organization's initiatives as a member of the Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging Program Committee, Adaptive Optics: Analysis and Methods Program Committee, and the Signal Recovery and Synthesis Program Committee. Dainty also served as the secretary-general and president of the International Commission for Optics, as well as the president of the European Optical Society. He currently is a member of the board of the European Technology Platform "Photonics 21" and is also on the external/scientific advisory boards of The Center for Adaptive Optics (Santa Cruz) and The Institute of Photonic Sciences (Barcelona). His research interests include optical imaging, scattering and propagation. In these areas, he has co-authored or edited six books, approximately 140 peer-reviewed papers and 220 conference presentations. The Applied Optics Group at NUI Galway was established in 2002, under the direction of Chris Dainty, and funded by a major grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). The SFI funding was renewed for a further five years in 2007. The Applied Optics Group has significant interaction with industry in Ireland, Europe, United States, and in Japan. Frank Gannon, Director General of SFI commented on the significance of the appointment: "I congratulate Professor Chris Dainty on his election as Vice President of the Optical Society of America for 2009 and President-Elect for 2010, and President in 2011. Since his move to NUI Galway in 2002, Professor Dainty through his dedication and expertise has established a cutting edge world-class Applied Optics research group, which now numbers approximately 25 researchers. The Group s research focuses in four areas: adaptive optics, vision science, imaging and scattering. Professor Dainty has contributed significantly to the development of Optical Engineering in Ireland, in addition he has developed strong collaboration with industry". ENDS