Carl Maes was recently named associate dean of academic programs for optical sciences at the University of Arizona (UA). Maes has a bachelor's degree in physics from the US Air Force Academy, a master's in physics from the University of Southern California and a PhD in optical sciences from UA. His MS thesis was "Aberrated Point Spread Functions and Beam Quality for Optical Systems with Annular Pupils (advisor Vini Mahajan, adjunct professor). His PhD dissertation was "Transverse Mode Properties of Lasers with Gaussian Gain" (advisor Ewan Wright, optics and physics professor). Maes spent approximately 20 years in the Air Force, including six years teaching, advising students and doing research at the Air Force Academy; four years as a researcher at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.; and five years as a program manager and project officer at the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base. Most recently, he has been teaching in UA's physics department. He will begin his new position Jan. 2.