David F. Welch (M'81–SM'90) received the B.S. degr'e in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware, Newark, 1981, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 1984.
In 2001, he founded Infinera Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA, an optical networking company and is currently its Chief Development Officer. Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Corporate Development of SDL and JDS Uniphase, San Jose, CA, where he was responsible for the technology and acquisition strategies that culminated in the $41 billion acquisition of SDL by JDS Uniphase.
Dr. Welch was the recipient of the Optical Society of America (OSA) Adolph Lomb Award in 1992 and the OSA Fraunhofer Award in 1999. He is a Fellow of the OSA.