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Conference Chair
David Cheskis, , Vice President of Strategic Marketing at IQE
David Cheskis serves as Vice President of Strategic at IQE, responsible for epitaxial products across all of IQE business units that are focused on addressing communications, connectivity and interactivity. Dr. Cheskis started the world’s first 6-inch GaAs VCSEL wafer foundry at ANADIGICS (subsequently acquired by II-VI Inc.) and is an expert in semiconductor, optoelectronics and communications technologies, products and markets. Dr. Cheskis earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.
Michael Lebby, Chair in Optoelectronics at Glyndŵr University, CEO at Lightwave Logic Inc
Presently, Michael is driving new frontiers in the integrated photonics field as: CEO and Board Director, Lightwave Logic Inc. Michael is also part-time full Professor and Chair of optoelectronics at Glyndwr University in Wales, UK where he contributes to the European Commission’s programs and pilot lines in integrated photonics. Michael has been involved in photonics for his whole career which began with research for the UK Government R&D labs in 1977, and continued at AT&T Bell Labs in 1984. At that time, Michael’s activities included researching novel optoelectronic devices in III-V compound semiconductors. Michael then went to Motorola’s Corporate R&D labs in 1989 and drove the VCSEL based technology platform to product and high volume manufacturing. He continued his fiber optics roles at AMP/TE Connectivity, and then helped initiate Intel’s silicon photonics work in 1999. In 2001, he founded his own company Ignis Optics to develop OC-48/192 transceivers and subsequently sold the company to Bookham (now Oclaro). Michael then led OIDA (Optoelectronics Industry Development Association) in Washington DC to campaign on behalf of the photonics industry. At OIDA Michael coined the term ‘green photonics’ and established this as discipline in the industry. Michael also spoke on Capitol Hill representing the optoelectronics industry. Since 2010, Michael has been focusing on bringing PIC (Photonic Integrated Circuit) based technologies to market in various roles that include Solar, LED lighting, and Integrated Photonics for fiber communications. Michael is pursuing high speed polymer based integrated photonics as part of a polymer PIC platform at Lightwave Logic Inc.