Events Calendar

Strategic Research and Innovation: An Excited-State Lifetime of 40 Years at AT&T Bell Labs

Speaker: Tingye Li,
Formerly of AT&T LabsRefreshments will be providedAbstract: Strategic research may be regarded as work that is focused on producing viable advances and innovations in a particular field. It can be fundamental or applied, but always involves having realistic goals in mind, an understanding of physics and limitations, and an appreciation for application issues. It is often associated with a vision that could launch a new technical direction and lead to innovations that engender significant industrial and societal impact. Innovation, on the other hand, is a process by which ideas or concepts are translated into viable applications. The innovative process can initially be a one-person or small-group effort, but later will involve usually a large-scale, institutionally-supported, team endeavor, driven by significant and measurable operational and economical gains. In this talk, I shall relate my experiences and observations of world-class strategic research and innovation in the field of optical fiber communications at AT&T Bell Laboratories as a participant over an excited-professional-state lifetime of 40 years.Biography: Tingye Li retired from AT&T in 1998. Until then, he was a Division Manager in the Communications Infrastructure Research Laboratory of AT&T Laboratories in New Jersey. Since joining AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1957, he has worked in the areas of antennas, microwave propagation, lasers and optical communications, in which he has contributed more than 100 journal papers, patents, books and book chapters. His early work on laser resonator modes established the basis for the understanding of laser operation and is considered a classic. Since the late 1960s, he and his groups have been engaged in pioneering research on lightwave technologies and systems, which are now ubiquitously deployed in telecommunications infrastructures worldwide. His work with his colleagues on amplified wavelength-division-multiplexed transmission systems has revolutionized lightwave communications.He holds a Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University. He is a Fellow of the OSA, IEEE, AAAS, Photonic Society of Chinese-Americans, and International Engineering Consortium. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Academia Sinica (Taiwan) and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He has received the IEEE Baker Prize, IEEE David Sarnoff Award, OSA/IEEE John Tyndall Award, OSA Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus Quinn Endowment, AT&T Science and Technology Medal, IEEE Photonics Award, and IEEE Edison Medal. He was named an honorary professor at many prestigious universities in China and Taiwan. He has been active in various professional societies, and was President of the Optical Society of America in 1995.Host: Prof. Alan Willner, willner@usc.edu

Location: Charles Lee Powell Hall (PHE) - 223

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Gerrielyn Ramos