Prof. Alan E. Willner
University of Southern California

      Alan Willner received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. He was a Postdoctoral Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories (Crawford Hill) and a Member of Technical Staff at Bellcore. He is currently Professor of Electrical Engineering - Systems at the University of Southern California. He is the Associate Director for the USC Center for Photonics Technology, is Co-Director of the USC Communications Sciences Institute, and was an Associate Director for Student Affairs for the NSF Engineering Research Center in Multimedia. Prof. Willner has served on several scientific advisory boards for small companies.

      Prof. Willner has received the following awards: the Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship in Science & Engineering, the National Science Foundation National Young Investigator Award, the Fulbright Foundation Senior Scholar Lecturing and Research Fellowship, the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) Lasers & Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) Distinguished Lecturer Award, the IEEE LEOS Distinguished Service Award, the USC Associates Award for University-Wide Excellence in Teaching, the USC/TRW Best Engineering Teacher Award, the USC/Northrop Outstanding Junior Engineering Faculty Research Award, the 2001 Eddy Paper Award from Pennwell Publications for the Best Contributed Technical Article (across all 30 magazines in Pennwell's Advanced Technology Division) and the Armstrong Foundation Memorial Prize for the highest-ranked EE graduate student at Columbia Univ. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Optical Society of America (OSA), and he was a Fellow of the Semiconductor Research Corp.

      Prof. WillnerÕs professional activities have included: President of the IEEE LEOS, Co-Chair of the Science and Engineering Council of the OSA, Vice-President for Technical Affairs of the IEEE LEOS, Photonics Division Chair of the OSA, Chair of the IEEE TAB Ethics and Member Conduct Committee, General and Program Co-Chair of the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), Program Co-Chair of the OSA Annual Meeting, General and Program Chair of the IEEE LEOS Annual Meeting, General and Program Co-Chair of the OSA Slow Light Topical Meeting, General and Program Co-Chair of the OSA Optical Amplifier Topical Meeting, Elected Member of the Board of Governors for the IEEE LEOS, General Co-Chair of the IEEE LEOS Topical Meeting on Broadband Optical Networks, Steering Committee and Technical Committee Member of the Conference on Optical Fiber Communications (OFC), Technical Program Committee Member of the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC), and Chair of the Optical Communications and Optical Networks IEEE LEOS Technical Committees. He has chaired the IEEE LEOS Distinguished Traveling Lecturer Award Committee and has served on these other awards committees: OSA Frederic Ives Medal (J.W. Quinn), LEOS Quantum Electronics Award, and LEOS Wm. Streifer Scientific Achievement Award.

      Prof. Willner's editorial positions have included: Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology (JLT), Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Editor-in-Chief-Elect of OSA Optics Letters, Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications Series on Optical Networks, Guest Editor for the Joint Special Issue of JLT and JSAC on Multiple-Wavelength Technologies and Networks, Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics Focus Issue on Ultra-High-Bandwidth Optical Transmission Systems, and Guest Editor for the OSA Journal of Optical Networking Special Issue on OCDMA.

      Prof. Willner has 670 publications, including 1 book. His research is in the area of optical communications, optical signal processing, optical networks, fiber optics, and optical device technologies.