March 2023 Issue: Precision motion stage has the right stuff

By Editor Design World | March 13, 2023

One of the most valuable pieces of "real estate" in any magazine is the page facing the inside back cover. Over the years, I’ve known many publications — both trade and consumer — with must-read departments or columns in that sacred space. Many times, they’re on the lighthearted or even humorous side. I’ve even subscribed to some publications where the column was such a draw that I’d open the magazine "backwards" to digest that content first. While Design World has never had a dedicated column on that page, it's something our editorial team has long discussed.

You may have noticed that we’ve finally made a change there; starting with last month's issue, a new column called Technical Thinking appears facing the inside back cover. We’re so excited about this change, thanks to the always thought-provoking writing of our new columnist, Mark Jones.

Mark is the Creative Director at MJPhD, LLC, an independent consulting firm. He retired after an industrial career of more than 30 years with a Fortune 100 company. During his career, he investigated a wide range of technologies, developed goals for sustainability related to innovation, implemented strategies related to renewable resources, and more. Responsibilities for communications and strategy around R&D filled the last decade of Mark's career. Technology and efforts to improve sustainability remain fascinations to him. Mark has written for our sister publication, R&D World, and his occasional contributions there have consistently been some of that magazine's most widely read content.

The main thrust of Design World will, of course, remain the highly engineered componentry and system design news, applications, and technical how-to features that you’ve counted on over the past 17 years. But Mark has a gift for taking real world interactions — reading a restaurant menu, hunting for morels in a forest, observing roads being salted — and delving into the technical steps that led humanity to that moment or wondering what that activity means for the future. I believe that his writing will add something positive to your reading experience each month.

I hope you enjoy Mark's writing as much as our staff has, and that you soon find yourself opening Design World in a "backwards" fashion first.

Paul J. Heney – VP, Editorial Director[email protected]On Twitter @wtwh_paulheney