Charles A Burrus received the B.S. degree from Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, in 1950, the M.S. degree from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, in 1951, and the Ph.D. degree from Duke University, Durham, NC, in 1955, all in physics. He was with the Physics Department as a Research Associate during 1954-1955. In 1955, he joined the Technical Staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey. He retired from AT&T Bell Labs in early 1996, and was a Consultant with Lucent Bell Laboratories through 2002. Dr. Burrus is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Pi Sigma, and Sigma Xi. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and OSA. He is the recipient of the 1982 David Richardson Medal from OSA, the AT&T Bell Laboratories Distinguished Technical Staff Award in 1982, and AT&T Bell Laboratories Fellow Award in 1988.