As is my custom, I would like to use this first editorial of the year to thank everyone who made substantive contributions to Optical Engineering in 2018, and to recognize a few particular individuals who have provided exceptional service. As you know, the journal operates mostly through a large number of volunteers. Authors submit papers mostly on their own accord, and the reviewers and editorial board members who ensure the scientific integrity of the published works provide their time and expertise on a volunteer basis. The credit for the success of the journal in light of this operating model goes to our exceptional staff, our knowledgeable editorial board, and the large number of manuscript reviewers who support them.

The primary staff and editorial board members are listed in each volume of Optical Engineering to provide some recognition for their contributions, but that is a small token relative to their sustained and outstanding efforts that are critical to making this journal come together every month. I am grateful for each of them, especially those who have served as associate editors for a number of years. As the editorial board is currently configured, the senior editors take responsibility for each of the five major sections of Optical Engineering and are particularly essential to our success. With this in mind, I would like to give special recognition to these five heroes of Optical Engineering: Benjamin Dingel, Groot Gregory, Patti Gillespie, Khan Iftekharrudin, and Rajpal Sirohi.

In addition to our regular editorial board, we also benefitted in 2018 from 25 guest editors who volunteered to pull together the eight special sections that we published. Their efforts included preparing the calls for papers, recruiting authors, overseeing the peer review process for submitted papers, and writing guest editorials. As our special section papers often become our most widely downloaded and cited papers, I am particularly appreciative to them for answering the call to enhance our journal in this manner.

Finally, I would like to thank all reviewers who contributed their services to Optical Engineering in 2018, a comprehensive list of whom is provided in this issue. Once again, I identified ten of our top reviewers based on a statistical analysis of manuscript review performance along with assessments and recommendations from the editorial board. Each has reviewed multiple Optical Engineering manuscripts over the past year, accepted a majority of review requests, completed their reviews on time, consistently achieved strong ratings from the associate editors overseeing the peer review process, and regularly provided detailed and thorough manuscript reviews.

After careful consideration, the following individuals are recognized as the top ten Optical Engineering reviewers for 2018:

Please join me in thanking our staff, editorial board, guest editors, and reviewers for their great service over this past year, and give some special thanks to our senior editors and these top reviewers for their exceptional performance. I also welcome future contributions from any of you who have a great idea for a special section or feel that you can serve this journal in some important capacity. We continue to look for more great volunteers who will ensure that Optical Engineering remains a great resource for our professional society.