SPIE Elects Kyle J. Myers into Presidential Chain
Kyle J. Myers, founder and principal of Puente Solutions, has been elected to serve as the 2026 vice president of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. With her election, Myers joins the SPIE presidential chain and will serve as president-elect in 2027 and as the society’s president in 2028.
SPIE 2025 president, Peter de Groot, Zygo Corporation scientist emeritus, made the announcement along with other SPIE election results at this year’s Annual General Meeting of the Society on August 5, during SPIE Optics + Photonics. New terms begin Jan. 1, 2026.
(Top row, from left) Kyle J. Myers, Jim McNally, Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop. (Bottom row, from left) Jessica Wade, Kate Medicus, Rainer Erdmann. Courtesy of SPIE.
Myers, in her addition to her role at Puente Solutions, is a fellow at the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University. Her areas of technical research across her career in government, industry, and academia have included medical imaging and biomedical optics; signal processing and AI/ML; vision science and perception; and technical translation from ideation to market authorization. From 1987 until 2021, Myers worked at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. Her final role there was as director of the Division of Imaging, Diagnostics, and Software Reliability.
An SPIE Fellow, Myers was the recipient of the 2024 SPIE Harrison H. Barrett Award in Medical Imaging, and a 2006 recipient of the Joseph W. Goodman Book Writing Award. She sits on the society’s Strategic Planning Committee and its Publications Committee. From 2018-2023, she served on the SPIE board of directors. She has participated as an SPIE Awards program chair, an associate editor for the Journal of Medical Imaging, and, from 1996-2005, as part of the program committee for the Image Processing Conference at SPIE Medical Imaging. Myers is currently on the program committee for the Image Perception, Observer Performance, and Technology Assessment conference at SPIE Medical Imaging. She is also a fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and Optica, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Alongside Myers, University of Rochester Professor Julie Bentley will serve as the 2026 SPIE president while Cather Simpson of the University of Auckland and Orbis Diagnostics, will serve as president-elect.
Jim McNally, CEO of StratTHNK Associates, was elected to serve as the 2026 SPIE Secretary/Treasurer.
Additionally, the following newly elected society directors will serve three-year terms from 2026-2028: Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop, professor of physics at the University of Queensland and deputy director of the Australian Research Council’s Center of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology; Jessica Wade, research fellow and lecturer at Imperial College London; Kate Medicus, CEO and owner of Ruda Optical; and Rainer Erdmann, CEO and founder of PicoQuant GmbH.
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