SIGMA XI - NJIT CHAPTER

The explosive demand for bandwidth for data networking applications continues to drive photonics technologies toward ever-increasing capacity in the backbone fiber network and toward flexible optical networking.  Already Tb/s (per fiber) transmission systems have been announced, and it can be expected that in the next several years we will begin to be limited by the 50 THz transmission window of silica optical fiber.

This evolution places stringent demands on the materials and devices incorporated in network elements.  Extensive research is underway on optical cross-connects, optical packet switching, high port count mux-demux devices, reconfigurable add-drop multiplexers, wavelength agile lasers, broadband fiber amplifiers, high capacity fiber designs, and elements for network management.  These devices are based on a number of materials platforms including compound semiconductor technology, silica-on-silicon, lithium niobate, MEMS technology, polymer and silica optical fiber, and ceramic and plastic packaging technologies

BIOGRAPHY

Alastair M. Glass is currently Photonics Research Laboratory Vice President of Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies.  In this capacity he is responsible for optical fiber, optical waveguide, photonic semiconductor devices, and photonic systems research and development for communication applications.  Since joining Bell Labs in 1967 Dr. Glass has been involved in a number of different fields of materials research relating to optical and electronic devices. This includes ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials, compound semiconductors, and dielectric insulators.  In his personal research he is probably best known for his pioneering work on novel optical phenomena in electro-optic materials including lithium niobate devices, infrared detectors, and photorefractive effects for image processing.   As a manager of photonics research he was responsible for the development of DWDM transmission systems including the erbium-doped fiber amplifier for the first optically-amplified transatlantic fiber system, Truewave fiber, wavelength selectable lasers, and various mux/demux devices.  In addition, he was responsible for the incubation of several new business ventures including Lucent’s specialty fiber business, their lithium niobate modulator business, and silicon waveguide business.  He has been an active member of the Optical Society for several years and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Optical Society of America from 1995-1998.  He has served on a number of organizing committees including general co-chair of CLEO 1993.  Dr. Glass has served on many government advisory panels.  He is currently a member of the National Materials Advisory Board, the NIST Board of Assessment, and recently served on the NRC Committee on Optical Science and Engineering (COSE). He authored two books, some 150 publications, and 25 patents.  He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Optical Society of America, and has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1987.  He is the recipient of the IEEE 2000 Sarnoff Award

For information, contact Dr. Ken Chin: at (973)596-3297 or at   chin@adm.njit.edu

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