A New Editor for the Transactions

To our great good fortune, Dr. James R. Lesh hasagreed to take over the job of TRANSACTIONS Editor-inChief, starting at the beginning of 1985. Jim has been known to TRANSACTIONS readers as one of its guiding spirits for almost ten years, first as Editor for Coding Theory Applications and then for the last three years as Editor for the entire Theory area, the largest component of the TRANSACTIONS. His experience and his publications have spanned both theoretical and applied aspects of optical communica- tion, tracking loops, and nonlinear channels. This broad background, gained mostly at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has given him a strong sensi- tivity to the need for focusing the Society's publications on papers of quality, significance, and innovation, along the lines of the Editorial that appeared in the September issue of the TRANSACTIONS. Jim is currently Supervisor of Communications Concepts Research, and Manager of Optical Communication Technology at JPL, where he and his people are developing new techniques for communication between space- craft separated by interplanetary distances. He has also held a joint teaching appointment at CalTech, where he has taught, at various times, courses on communication theory, information theory, coding, and signal processing.