About
03 October 2007
OFC/NFOEC 2008 Confirms Industry Luminaries as Keynotes
MEDIA ADVISORY
Contact:
Lyndsay Meyer
The Optical Society
+1.202.416.1435
lmeyer@osa.org
OFC/NFOEC 2008 Confirms Industry
Luminaries as Keynotes
High-Level Speakers include Matt Bross, Reed Hundt,
Bob Metcalfe and Herwig Kogelnik
The 2008 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (OFC/NFOEC) – the premier international optical communications event – will feature four industry veterans in the field of optics and telecommunications. Three speakers are scheduled to give the keynote addresses at the OFC/NFOEC plenary session, which draws the largest audience at the conference, and a fourth speaker will provide the keynote address at the conference's Service Provider Summit, a dynamic program designed for those in the service provider and carrier sector. Their talks will provide important insights into the state of the optical communications industry, information on the latest cutting-edge technologies, assessments and analyses of industry trends and a unique international perspective of the future of optical fiber communications.
WHAT: Leaders in the fiber optic industry are confirmed as keynote speakers for OFC/NFOEC.
WHO: Keynote speakers are:
Matt Bross, CTO, BT Group
Conference Plenary Speaker
As BT’s chief technology officer, Bross is responsible for setting the BT Group technology strategy and the vision and direction of innovation across BT and globally. Bross is the leading force behind BT’s multi-billion pound 21st Century Network transformation, and is leading innovation for BT. Bross is widely regarded as a visionary speaker on media and telecommunications issues internationally.
Herwig Kogelnik, adjunct photonics systems research vice president, Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent
Conference Plenary Speaker
Kogelnik joined Bell Labs (earlier owned by AT&T, currently by Alcatel-Lucent) in 1961, where he conducted research in optics, electronics and communications, including work on lasers, holography, optical guided-wave devices and integrated optics. He was head of the Coherent Optics Research Department from 1967 to 1976, director of the Electronics Research Laboratory from 1976 to 1983, and director of the Photonics Research Laboratory from 1983 to 1997. He is presently adjunct photonics research VP.
Robert Metcalfe, general partner, Polaris Ventures
Conference Plenary Speaker
MIT engineer, Harvard mathematician, Internet developer, Xerox scientist, Ethernet inventor, Stanford University professor, 3Com founder, Cambridge fellow, InfoWorld pundit, and now Polaris partner. In 2005, Metcalfe received the National Medal of Technology for leadership in the invention (1973), standardization and commercialization of Ethernet, of which a quarter billion switch ports ship each year. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Inventors Hall of Fame, and board of trustees of MIT, where he is a director of Technology Review magazine and chairman of the Leadership Board of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. He devised Metcalfe's Law, which he has been defending for more than 25 years.
Reed Hundt, advisor, Blackstone Group and McKinsey & Co., former chairman, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Service Provider Summit Keynote Speaker
Hundt served four years as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, from 1993 to 1997. Author of You Say You Want a Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics (Yale University Press, 2000) and In China’s Shadow: The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship (Yale University Press, 2006), he serves as a special advisor to the Blackstone Group, a New York-based private equity firm, and a part-time advisor to McKinsey & Company. Hundt serves on the board of directors for a number of prominent telecommunications companies, including Intel and Infinera.
WHEN: Feb. 24 – 28, 2008 (Plenary Session – Tuesday, Feb. 26, 8 a.m. - 11 a.m. PST; Service Provider Summit Keynote – Wednesday, Feb. 27, 9 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. PST)
WHERE: San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California, USA
About OFC/NFOEC:
Since 1985, the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) has provided an annual backdrop for the optical communications field to network and share research and innovations. In 2004, OFC joined forces with the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC) creating the largest and most comprehensive international event for optical communications. By combining an exposition of more than 600 companies, with a unique program of peer-reviewed technical programming and special focused educational sessions, OFC/NFOEC provides an unparalleled opportunity reaching every audience from service providers to optical equipment manufacturers and beyond.
OFC/NFOEC, www.ofcnfoec.org, is managed by the Optical Society of America (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (IEEE/LEOS). Acting as a non-financial technical co-sponsor is Telcordia Technologies, Inc.
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