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 and is an Associate Director for Student Affairs for the NSF Engineering Research Center in Multimedia.

      Prof. Willner has received the following awards: the Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship in Science and Engineering, the National Science Foundation National Young Investigator Award, the Fulbright Foundation Senior Scholar Fellowship, the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (IEEE LEOS) Distinguished Lecturer Award, the USC/Northrop Outstanding Junior Engineering Faculty Research Award, the USC/TRW Best Engineering Teacher Award, and the Armstrong Foundation Memorial Prize for the highest-ranked EE graduate student at Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and was a Fellow of the Semiconductor Research Corporation.

      Prof. Willner has been involved in many professional activities, including: Vice-President for Technical Affairs for the IEEE LEOS, Elected Member of the Board of Governors for the IEEE LEOS, Co-Chair of the Science and Engineering Council of the OSA, Photonics Division Chair of the OSA, General Chair of the IEEE LEOS Annual Meeting, Program Co-Chair of the OSA Annual Meeting, Program Co-Chair of the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), General Co-Chair of the OSA Optical Amplifier Conference, 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 served on the following IEEE LEOS awards committees: Quantum Electronics, Wm. Streifer Scientific Achievement, IEEE Fellow, and Distinguished Lecturer.

      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, Guest Editor for the Special Issue of JLT and IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications on Multiple-Wavelength Technologies and Networks, and Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics Focus Issue on Ultra-High-Bandwidth Optical Transmission Systems.

      Prof. Willner has over 300 publications, including 1 book. His research is in the area of optical fiber communication systems, wavelength-division multiplexing, optical amplification, optical networks,optical switching, and optical interconnections.