Optical Society holds Its 50th‐anniversary meeting

SUBJECTS OLD AND SUBJECTS NEW were prominent as the Optical Society of America held its 50th Anniversary Meeting last March in Washington. Looking backward the society distributed its own history, presented a historical exhibit and listened to several papers, both contributed and invited, devoted to history. Looking forward it offered invited papers that represented each of the currently fast‐moving subjects in optics. Grants from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research plus an unusually large investment on the part of the society itself enabled OSA to invite outstanding speakers from Europe as well as the United States.