This Expert was a Fannie and John Hertz Fellow from 1981-1985, and in 1992 he was awarded the OSA Adolf Lomb Medal for pioneering contributions to nonlinear optical phenomena and all-optical switching in optical fibers.  He also received the U-M research excellence award in 1997 and became a Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 1998.  In 2002 he received the Texas eComm Ten Award for being one of the 10 most influential people in Texas's digital economy.  He is an IEEE Fellow; the first recipient of the prestigious 2007 Distinguished University Innovator Award for developing and commercializing break-through technology.

He has published three books and over 120 papers in refereed journals and holds over 100 patents or patents pending.  His current research interests include mid-infrared laser sources and their applications in defense and healthcare.  On the defense side, applications include infrared countermeasures, explosives detection, and battlefield communication.  On the healthcare side, his research relates to using infrared lasers in cardiology, endocrinology, dermatology and ophthalmology.  Another area of this current work relates to ultra-high resolution imaging of power-train parts, including sub-micron resolution and surface roughness measurements.  He teaches a number of courses including Introduction to Photonics, Fiber Optics:  Internet to Biomedical Applications, High-Tech Entrepreneurship and Patent Fundamentals for Engineers.  He has also founded several companies, including Xtera Communications, Omni Sciences, Celeste Optics, AccuPhotonics and Cheetah Omni.  He is also a Registered Patent Agent with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

• Broadband Optical Networks
• Cardiovascular Lasers
• Fiber Optics & Photonics
• Fiber-to-the-Home
• Laser Technology for Medical, Defense and Homeland Security Applications
• MEMS Technology
• Nonlinear Fiber Optics
• Optical Amplifiers
• Optical Microscopy & Spectroscopy
• Optical Switching & Routing
• Soliton Systems
• Supercontinuum & Fiber Lasers
• WDM Networks

• D. Sc., Electrical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• M.S., Electrical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• B.S., Electrical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology