I am delighted to welcome you to a newly launched SPIE electronic journal: the Journal of Photonics for Energy (JPE). This new interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal will provide a bridge between two areas of research, linking them together and offering a home for research activities in photonics and renewable energy.

I am thrilled to work with SPIE to offer this new effective way of communicating recent findings and breakthroughs in photonics and energy to our research and industrial community. JPE will serve as an interdisciplinary forum for the scientific and engineering community active in basic and applied research areas linking photonics to renewable energy. Topics will include, but are not limited to, innovative concepts for energy harvesting, conversion, storage, distribution, monitoring, consumption, and efficient usage. I will work with the editorial board and the scientific and engineering research community to make JPE a primary journal for the dissemination of results and discussion of key challenges and topics in photonics and renewable energy. JPE will publish full-length original research articles as well as short technical communications for the Letters section of the journal.

In addition to original research articles and letters, we will also publish perspectives, viewpoints, and reviews, providing authors with venues to describe and analyze a particular area of renewable energy science and its connection to photonics from their perspective. All submissions will be reviewed in an expedient manner, leading to rapid publication of accepted papers in electronic form. The e-journal format of JPE provides numerous advantages, including multimedia (video and audio) content, free full-color images, rapid review, and article-at-a-time publication. Individual manuscripts will be published online as soon as they are accepted. JPE also features copyediting and typesetting so authors are not responsible for final formatting. Complete author guidelines are available at spie.org/jpe.

If you have any questions and/or suggestions about the coverage of the journal or how to submit, please contact jpe@spie.org.

Special recognition goes to the SPIE Publications staff for their important behind-the-scenes roles in the launch of the journal, including Karolyn Labes, Eric Pepper, Mary Summerfield, Rita Davis, and Gwen Weerts, who were critical to the journal development.

Special thanks and appreciation are extended to the members of the editorial board who first kindly agreed to serve on the board, helped me through the difficult process of the birth of a new journal, and continue to work and strive to maintain the high quality of the peer-review process with the goal of creating a first-class journal.

I am excited about the future of photonics and energy, and the role that JPE will play in communicating discoveries in this highly interdisciplinary field. The 21^st century will witness many scientific and engineering breakthroughs that will shape the future of clean, sustainable, and renewable energy for generations to come. SPIE, the members of the editorial board, and I welcome any input you may have with regard to JPE including how to best serve and disseminate information rapidly to our community. I look forward to receiving your manuscripts and promise to make JPE an effective and dynamic forum for the photonics and renewable energy community.

Welcome to the Journal of Photonics for Energy.