Background
Welch was born in Washington, District of Columbia, on October 26, 1960, the youngest of seven children in his family.
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David Welch
Edit ProfileEducation
Welch attended Severna Park High School, a public school in Severna Park, Maryland, and entered the University of Delaware to study electrical engineering at the age of 16. Welch earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware in 1981 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 1985.
Career
Welch is a pioneer in the field of optical devices and optical transport systems for telecommunications networks. Welch first made it possible to commercially deploy reliable 980 nm laser pumps, needed in low noise optical amplifiers employed in dense wavelength division multiplexing (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) telecommunications systems JDSU: From February 2001 to April 2001, Welch served as Chief Technology Officer of the Transmission Division of JDS Uniphase Corporation, an optical component company.
Spectra Diode Labs (SDL): From January 1985 to February 2001, Welch served in various executive roles, including Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Corporate Development of SDL, an optical component company.
JDS Uniphase acquired SDL in 2001. Honors and Welch founded Students Matter in 2011 with the goal of creating positive structural change in the California K-12 public education system.
Achievements
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In November 2013, Welch was awarded the Institute of Engineering and Technology (The Institution of Engineering and Technology ) J J Thomson Medal for Electronics. The Institution of Engineering and Technology Achievement Medals are awarded to individuals who have made major and distinguished contributions in the various sectors of science, engineering and technology. In February 2013, Welch was recognized as #5 of the "Top Ten: Optical Movers and Shakers" by telecommunications publication Light Reading In 2011, the Optical Society of America (The Optical Society) presented Welch the 2011 John Tyndall Award. The Tyndall Award is the highest recognition in the optical telecommunications community and is co-sponsored by The Optical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Photonics Society. The Tyndall Award recognizes an individual who has made pioneering, highly significant, or continuing technical or leadership contributions to fiber optics technology. In 2010, Welch was recognized by the University of Delaware for his outstanding professional and public service achievements by being inducted into the University Alumni Association Wall of Fame. In 1999, Welch received the Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize from the Optical Society of America. The award recognizes significant research accomplishments in the field of optical engineering. In 1998, Welch was the recipient of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Engineering Achievement Award, presented to him "for the design, development and commercialization of high power diffraction limited semiconductor lasers." In 1992, Welch received the Adolph Lomb Medal from the Optical Society of America. The Adolph Lomb Medal, established in 1940, is presented to a person who has made a noteworthy contribution to optics at an early age. The candidate cannot be older than the age of 35 in the calendar year of presentation.
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Born
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Nationality
American