Biography

Prof. Alan Willner received the Ph.D. (1988) in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, as well as a B.A. (1982) in Physics and an Honorary Degree (Honoris Causa, 2012) from Yeshiva University. Prof. Willner was a Postdoctoral Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories and a Member of Technical Staff at Bellcore. He is currently the Steven and Kathryn Sample Chaired Professor in Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering in the Ming Hsieh Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering of the Viterbi School of Engineering at the Univ. of Southern California; he also has a joint appointment with the Dept. of Physics & Astronomy in the USC Dornsife College. Prof. Willner has been: a Visiting Professor at Columbia University, the Univ. College London, and the Weizmann Institute of Science; and a Visiting Scholar at Yeshiva University. He is a Member of the U.S. Army Science Board, was a Member of the Defense Sciences Research Council (a 16-member body that provided reports to the DARPA Director and Office Directors), has served on many scientific advisory boards for small companies, and has advised several venture capital firms. Additionally, Prof. Willner was Founder and CTO of Phaethon Communications, a company whose technology was acquired by Teraxion, that created the ClearSpectrum® dispersion compensator product line which is presently deployed in many commercial 40-Gbit/s systems worldwide. Prof. Willner has received the following honors/ awards: Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, International Fellow of the U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering, Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, David & Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship in Science & Engineering, Thomas Egleston Medal for Distinguished Engineering Achievement from Columbia Eng. Alumni Association, U.S. Vannevar Bush Defense Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship (formerly NSSEFF), Fellow of National Academy of Inventors, Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET) J.J. Thomson Medal, National Science Foundation National Young Investigator Award, Fulbright Foundation Senior Scholar Research and Lecturing Fellowship, Honorary Professor of Huazhong Univ. of Science & Technology, the Optical Society (OSA) Paul Forman Engineering Excellence Award, IEEE Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award, SPIE President’s Award, IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer Award, IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Service Award, USC Associates Award for University-Wide Creativity in Research (highest university research award), OSA Robert Hopkins Leadership Award, Civilian Service Commendation Medal from the U.S. Dept. of the Army, USC Associates Award for University-Wide Excellence in Teaching (highest university teaching award), USC Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award (for significant scholarly work), USC Senior Engineering Research Award, USC/TRW Best Engineering Teacher Award, USC/Northrop Outstanding Junior Engineering Faculty Research Award, 2001 Eddy Paper Award from Pennwell Publications for the Best Contributed Technical Article (across all 30 magazines in Pennwell’s Advanced Technology Division), IEEE Globecom Best Paper Award, and Edwin Howard Armstrong Foundation Memorial Award for the highest-ranked EE Masters student at Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the AAAS, APS, IEEE, IET, OSA and SPIE, and he was a Fellow of the Semiconductor Research Corporation. Prof. Willner was an invited foreign dignitary representing the sciences for the 2009 Nobel Prize Ceremonies in Stockholm.