The organisers of the 2013 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition/National Fibre Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC), which takes place on 17-21 March, have announced a special symposium in honour of Tingye Li to take place 18 March at the conference at the Anaheim Convention Centre in Anaheim, California (US). The symposium, entitled “A Brief History of Optical Communications: A Symposium in Memory of Tingye Li,” will feature presentations from Li’s professional colleagues, as well as tributes to his illustrious life and career.
Li, who passed away late last year, worked at AT&T Bell Labs for more than four decades before his retirement in 1998 and is renowned for his contributions to light-wave technology and optical fibre communications. He and his team at Bell Labs developed the world’s first (sparse channel) wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) system. The use of WDM and optical amplifiers changed the paradigm of network economics and is considered to be of revolutionary significance in the history of light-wave communications.
The memorial symposium will summarise the history of modern optical telecommunications with special reference to Li’s contributions in celebration of his life. Speakers, who will be introduced by Alan Willner of the University of Southern California, will include:
• Rod Alferness, University of California, Santa Barbara
• Joe Campbell, University of Virginia
• Tom Koch, University of Arizona
• Herwig Kogelnik, Bell Labs, Alcatel Lucent
“Tingye’s career spanned the entire history of modern optical telecommunications,” said symposium organiser Bob Jopson of Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent. “This symposium will give his colleagues, industry peers and all those who have learned from his incredible achievements an opportunity to come together and revisit history through the lens of Tingye’s work.”
In addition to Jopson, the symposium is being organised by Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent staff Andy Chraplyvy and Bob Tkach and will be held Monday, 18 March from 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. in Ballroom C of the Anaheim Convention Centre.
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