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Schedule including this lecture.
Goddard Space Flight Center Engineering Colloquium
Date: Monday, April 1, 2002
Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) are beginning to have an impact in almost every area of science and technology. The combination of high functionality, small size, low power, low cost, the ability to integrate with electronics and high speed give them a clear advantage over other competing technologies. In fields as disparate as wireless communications, automotive design, entertainment, and lightwave systems, MEMS is increasingly becoming a key technology. This is especially true in lightwave systems, where many devices such as variable attenuators, add/drop multiplexors, switches, dynamic gain equalizers, and especially optical crossconnects are being built with MEMS devices and sold in the marketplace. This talk will discuss MEMS devices in general, show how and where they will be used in lightwave systems, and then show how they are allowing a billion-dollar business to be born -- that of large all-optical crossconnects.
David J. Bishop was born on October 6, 1951 in Montgomery, Alabama. He graduated from Vicenza American High School in Vicenza, Italy in 1969. In 1973 he graduated Magna Cum Laude and with honors from Syracuse University with a B.S. in Physics. In 1977 he received an M.S. in Physics from Cornell University and in 1978 a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell. In 1978 he became a postdoctoral member of staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories and in 1979 was made a Member of the Technical Staff. In 1988 he was made a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, and later that same year was promoted to Department Head. He is a Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories Fellow and is currently the Optical Research VP for the Optical Networking Group (ONG) as well as VP for the Communications Subsystems Research Laboratory. A further responsibility at Bell Laboratories is leading the Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) development effort.
Colloquium Committee Sponsor: Jeff Greenwell
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