Andrew R Chraplyvy received the BS degree in physics in 1972 from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and the MS and PhD degrees in physics from Cornell University in 1975 and 1977, respectively. He joined the physics department at General Motors Research Labs in 1977 as a Senior Research Scientist. Since 1980, he has been with Bell Laboratories, where he is Optical Technologies Research Vice President. He holds over 35 patents in the areas of lightwave systems and fiber optics.

He is a Fellow of Bell Labs, the Marconi Society, OSA, and IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He was named the 1999 New Jersey Inventor of the Year, and earned many Patent Awards. He received the 2003 John Tyndall Award, 2009 Marconi Prize, and 2013 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal.