Stewart D Personick earned his PhD degree from MIT in 1969. He joined Bell Laboratories upon completion of his degree. He spent the first 30 years of his career in industry, initially at Bell Labs, and later at TRW and Belcore. In 1998, Personick transitioned into academia, becoming a professor at Drexel University. Later, he joined the New Jersey Institute of Technology. 

He is a Fellow and recipient of the 2000 John Tyndall Award “for his pioneering research in optical receiver design, system engineering, and optical time domain reflectometry, and for leadership in education and the promotion of fiber optics.”