Professor Tingye Li, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and Chinese Academy of Engineering, a well-known scholar in optical fiber communication, will be appointed as an honorary professor of Zhejiang University on 6 June, 2012. On behalf of Zhejiang University, Vice-President Chu Jian will presented a certificate of honorary professor to Prof. Li on the appointment ceremony. After the ceremony, Prof. Li will give a lecture:"Strategic Research and Innovation in Optical Communications : An Excited-State Lifetime of Forty Years at AT&T Bell Labs"
Date: 6 June, 2012(Wednesday)
Location: Conference Room 211, Shao Yi Fu Academic Building, Yuquan Campus, Zhejiang University
Schedule:
1. 14:30-14:50 Honorary Professor of Zhejiang University Appointment Ceremony
2. 14:50-15:50 Lecture：Strategic Research and Innovation in Optical Communications: An Excited-State Lifetime of Forty Years at AT&T Bell Labs
3. 15:50-16:20 Q & A
4. 16:20-17:00 OSA/IEEE/SPIE Zhejiang University Student Chapters Activity
Strategic Research and Innovation in Optical Communications:
An Excited-State Lifetime of Forty Years at AT&T Bell Labs
Tingye Li
AT&T Bell laboratories (Retired)
Boulder, Colorado 80304, USA
Abstract
Strategic research may be regarded as that mission-oriented work which is focused on producing significant advances and innovations in a particular field. It can be fundamental or applied, but always involves having realistic goals in mind, a deep understanding of physical principles and a good appreciation for applications issues. It is often associated with a vision that could launch a new technical direction and spawn innovations that would engender significant industrial and societal impact. Innovation, on the other hand, is the process by which novel ideas or concepts are created and translated into viable applications. The innovation process can initially be a one-person or small-group effort, but later would evolve i nto a large-scale, institutionally-supported, mission-driven team endeavor, motivated by significant and measurable operational and economical gains. In this talk, I shall relate my experiences and observations as a participant of strategic research and innovation in the field of optical fiber communications at AT&T Bell Laboratories over a professional career of forty years.
Tingye Li retired in December, 1998 as a Division Manager in the Communications Infrastructure Research Laboratory of AT&T Labs in New Jersey. He is now an independent consultant in the field of lightwave communications and serves on the board of directors of several optical component and systems companies. Since joining AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1957, he has worked in the areas of antennas, microwave propagation, lasers, photonics technologies, and optical communications. His early work on laser resonator modes established the basic theory of laser modes 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 have been commercialized and deployed in telecom infrastructures worldwide. During the 1990s, he led the seminal work with his colleagues on amplified wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) transmission technologies and systems, which revolutionized lightwave communications and facilitated the exponential growth of the Internet.
Dr. Li holds a B.Sc. degree fro m the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees f rom Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He is a Fellow of OSA, IEEE, AAAS, PSC, and IEC, a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and Academia Sinica, and a Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He has received the IEEE 1975 W. R. G. Baker Prize, the IEEE 1979 David Sarnoff Award, the OSA/IEEE 1995 John Tyndall Award, the OSA 1997 Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus Quinn Endowment, the 1997 AT&T Science and Technology Medal, the IEEE 2004 Photonics Award, and the IEEE 2009 Edison Medal. His other awards include the 1981 Alumni Merit Award f rom Northwestern University, and Achievement Awards f rom CIE/USA (1978), CAAP (1983) and PSC (1998). He has been named an honorary professor at many universities and institutions in China and Taiwan, and has been granted an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan and an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree in Engineering f rom the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Dr. Li has been active in various professional societies, serving as officer, board member, committee member and chair, journal editor, conference chair, etc. He was President of OSA in 1995.