![]() ![]() One of the things I teach students now is that very few of the questions I ask are ever going to be something they find on Google. When I began to ask for advice on where to go to study optics, there was only one answer: The Institute of Optics. ![]() It was that glimpse of both what we knew (and could model) as well as how much we didn’t yet know about fiber optics that led me to apply to graduate schools. I was a young physics graduate who didn’t know much, but was fascinated by both the optical technology and the technical experiences of the senior engineers. I joined a small optical fiber systems group at GTE that was trying to compete with the ‘big guys’ at AT&T by rushing to get some of the first optical fiber systems that weren’t just test systems, but that were carrying actual telephone conversations. While working as an optical fiber systems designer at GTE Laboratories in 1978, I wrote the systems modeling software used to design the first live-traffic 1.3 μm optical fiber telephone link. That’s why I stuck with the physics major. So I signed up for physics and ended up getting hooked. ![]() I heard through the grapevine that the math advisers weren’t so good, but the physics advisers were really good. I really didn’t have physics as a primary goal. I intended to major in mathematics when I went to college. But I never had a chance to see them live and it was years before I even heard them on an actual first-run recording. We didn’t have television and I really loved the music and lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel. I was an avid reader and my favorite authors were C.S. We were getting hits from the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Three Dog Night, and Creedence Clearwater Revival eighteen months after they came out.īecause of where I lived, I never really had idols growing up. I played touch football and flag football, and we’d get American music on cassette tapes that had been copied and recopied three times. I went to an international school, and my classmates were from all over the world: Europe, the U.S., the UK, and Australia. So I lived in Pakistan from birth till age 16, with a couple of years back here in the U.S. They would work in Pakistan for four years, return to Massachusetts for a year, and then go back for four years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |