CLAIRE GMACHL was born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1967. She received the Ph.D. degree (sub auspicies praesidentis) in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Vienna, Austria, in 1995. Her studies focused on integrated optical modulators and tunable surface-emitting lasers in the near infrared. In 1996, she joined Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ, as Post-Doctoral Member of Technical Staff in the Quantum Phenomena and Device Research Department, to work on Quantum Cascade laser devices and microcavity lasers. Key contributions were the development of single-mode and tunable distributed feedback Quantum Cascade lasers and chaotic micro-cavity lasers with high optical power and directionality. In March 1998 she became a Member of Technical Staff in the Semiconductor Physics Research Department, working on Quantum Cascade laser devices and applications and on intersubband photonic devices, and a Distinguished Member of Staff in 2002. In September 2003, Dr. Gmachl joined Princeton University as an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and adjunct faculty to PRISM. Prof. Gmachl is the Director of MIRTHE, the newly formed NSF Engineering Research Center on Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment. Prof. Gmachl is an expert in mid-infrared photonics, especially Quantum Cascade lasers, and semiconductor optoelectronics. She has demonstrated many innovative Quantum Cascade laser concepts such as the first bi-directional, multi-wavelength, or broadband Quantum Cascade lasers, and recently the first instance of nonlinear light generation in these lasers. She has also contributed to the development of the lasers for trace gas sensing applications and is actively involved in their commercialization.
Prof. Gmachl has authored and co-authored more than 160 publications, has given more than 100 presentations at conferences and seminars, and holds 26 patents. She is an Associate Editor for Optics Express and a member of the IEEE/LEOS Board of Governors.
Dr. Gmachl is a 2005 MacArthur Fellow. She is a World Technology Network Associate, and has been voted runner-up to “Salzburger of the year 2005”. She has been featured as one of Esquire Magazine’s “Best & brightest” in 2006, and Popular Science Magazine’s “Brilliant 10” in 2004; she is a member of the MIT Technology Review TR100 of 2002, and a 2002/03 IEEE/LEOS Distinguished Lecturer. She is also a co-recipient of the “The Snell Premium” award of the IEE, UK, 2003, and the 2000 “NASA Group Achievement Award”, and a recipient of the 1996 “Solid State Physics Award” of the Austrian Physical Society, and the “1995 Christian Doppler Award” for engineering sciences including environmental sciences, Austria. She is senior member of the IEEE and Laser and Electro-Optics Society, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Austrian Physical Society, the New York Academy of Science, the Optical Society of America, the SPIE-International Society for Optical Engineering, and the Materials Research Society.

KAZUO HOTATE received B.E., M.E., and Dr. Eng. degrees in Electronic Engineering, all from the University of Tokyo, Japan, in 1974, 1976 and 1979, respectively. In 1979, he joined the University of Tokyo as a Lecturer. He became an Associate Professor in 1987, and a Professor in 1993 in the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), the University of Tokyo. In 1997, he became a Professor in Department of Electronic Engineering, School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. Since April, 2006, he is also a Vice Dean of the School.
He has been engaged in photonics, including projection-type holography, measurement and analyses of optical fiber characteristics, optical computing, and photonic sensing. Study on noise factors and countermeasures of Fiber Optic Gyros are one of the main subjects in his research. Currently, he has proposed and studied “Fiber Optic Nerve Systems” for making materials/structures feel pain. He is a leader of the 21st Century Center of Excellence Program on Electronics in his university, which is selected and granted by the Ministry of Education, Sport, Culture, Science and Technology, Japan.
He authored and/or co-authored several books on optical fibers and optical fiber sensors, and about 300 journal papers and international conference presentations. He received the Achievement Award in 1979, Book Award in 1984, and the Electronics Society Award in 2003, all from the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE). He also received the Paper Award in 1984 and the Hasunuma Prize on “Photonic Sensing” in 2002 both from the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE), the Ichimura Prize on “Fiber Optic Gyros” in 2001 from the New Technology Development Foundation, and the Paper Award in 2006 from the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP). He is a Fellow of SICE (2000), a Fellow of IEEE (2003), and a Fellow of IEICE (2004).
He is serving as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Lightwave Technology. He was a chair of the LEOS Japan Chapter in 2004, and the Chapter was awarded as the Most Innovative Chapter in LEOS

DAVID V. PLANT received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Brown University, Providence, RI, in 1989. From 1989 to 1993, he was a Research Engineer with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He has been a Professor and Member of the Photonic Systems Group, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, since 1993. Since September 1, 2006, he has been the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. During the 2000 to 2001 academic years, he took a leave of absence from McGill University to become the Director of Optical Integration at Accelight Networks, Pittsburgh, PA. He is the Director and Principal Investigator of the Centre for Advanced Systems and Technologies Communications at McGill University (www.sytacom.mcgill.ca). He is also Scientific Director and Principal Investigator of the Agile All-Photonics Networks Research Network (www.aapn.mcgill.ca).
Dr. Plant received the Outstanding Departmental Teaching Award and the Faculty of Engineering Teaching Award (1996), the Carrie M. Derick Award for Graduate Research Supervision and Teaching (2004), the Samuel and Ida Fromson Award for Outstanding Teaching (2006), and the Principal’s Prize for Teaching Excellence (2006), all from McGill University. He was named an inaugural James McGill Professor (2001), an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer (2005 – 07), was the recipient of the R.A. Fessenden Medal from IEEE Canada (2006), received a NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation (2006), and is the recipient of the Outstanding Engineering Educator Award from IEEE Canada (2007). He is an IEEE Fellow, an OSA Fellow, and a member of Sigma Xi.
His research interests are in optically interconnected systems covering Optoelectronic-VLSI (transceivers, heterogeneous integration), VCSELs (design, performance), and system demonstrators. In addition, he has been researching agile all-photonic networks including topological design and performance (optical packet switched, OCDMA), optoelectronic and electro-optic switches, gratings for photonic code-based processing, and burst mode receivers.
Without question, LEOS is an internationally recognized society of significant influence. As a new elected BoG member, I am dedicated to upholding and supporting the long standing traditions of excellence, integrity and outreach that have become the signature of LEOS. Journals sponsored and co-sponsored by LEOS have a strong impact factor and LEOS conferences, both large (OFC, CLEO, LEOS Annual) and small (Topical) represent premier venues for dissemination of leading-edge research. Conference attendance also provides an opportunity for establishing and maintaining individual and corporate networks. As a BoG member I will work to promote these activities as the Society’s core competencies and help to evolve them to face new challenges and opportunities.
I look forward to serving on the BoG as an opportunity to demonstrate my commitment to helping maintain the uncompromising technical quality of LEOS. Furthermore, as Editor in Chief of the LEOS Web Portal, I am anxious to utilize the Web to deliver additional products and services to members; including, for example, on-line tutorials, software reviews, and continued expansion of content in the LEOS-University section. As a BoG member, I consider myself well positioned to meet these and other objectives quickly and efficiently. With respect to membership, programs that foster professional development through education, networking, and placement services must be pursued, particularly those that reach out to our colleagues and members across the globe. In addition, seeking new means of attracting and maintaining membership globally through promotion of the technical work of the membership is important. Member participation is a crucial measure of the health of a Society and as a BoG member I am anxious to cultivate this involvement.

ALWYN SEEDS was born in Amersham, near London, England in 1955. He read Electronics at Chelsea College (now part of King’s College), University of London and received the BSc degree with First Class Honours in 1976. He moved to University College London (UCL) to carry out research on the optical control of avalanche diode oscillators, receiving the PhD degree for this work in 1980. From 1980 to 1983 he was a Staff Member at Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked on GaAs monolithic millimetre-wave integrated circuits for use in phased-array radar. He returned to England in 1983, to take up a lectureship in telecommunications at Queen Mary College, University of London, moving to UCL in 1986, where he is now Professor of Opto-electronics and Head of the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. He has published over 250 papers (more than 60 of them invited) on microwave and opto-electronic devices and their systems applications and filed 10 patents in this area. He was awarded the DSc degree of the University of London in 2002 for his research in microwave photonics. His current research interests include THz photonics, tuneable semiconductor lasers, quantum confined optical modulators, optical control of microwave devices, mode-locked lasers, optical phase-lock loops, optical frequency synthesis, broadband wireless over fibre access systems, uncooled dense WDM technologies and non-linear processing in optical transmission.
Alwyn Seeds has been a Program Committee member for the LEOS Annual Meeting since 2002 and is Sub-Committee Chair for Microwave Photonics for 2007, he was a Program Committee member for the 2006 IEEE LEOS/MTT International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics (MWP) and is an Advisory Committee member for the IEEE/IEICE Asia-Pacific Microwave Photonics Meetings. He served as Program Chair for the 2006 IEEE LEOS/EDS Indium Phosphide and Related Materials Conference, as Co-Chair for the 2005 LEOS Summer Topical Meetings, as editor of Special Issues in Microwave Photonics for the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology and IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, as Program Chair, General Chair and Steering Committee Chair for the IEEE LEOS/MTT MWP meeting series, as Special Session and Workshop Organiser for the IEEE/OSA OFC conference, as a Short Course Presenter for both ECOC and OFC and as a committee member of the UKRI LEOS/MTT/APS Joint Chapter.
In addition to his LEOS activities Alwyn Seeds is Chairman of the Photonics Professional Network of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK), a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, an IEEE Fellow and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Engineers. He is a co-founder of ZinWave Inc., a manufacturer of wireless over fibre systems, and a director of or consultant to a number of other companies.
Outside work Alwyn Seeds is interested in music, particularly opera and church music, audio technology and the cultural and social pleasures of living in central London with his wife, Angela and teenage daughter, Caroline.
On the Board of Governors Alwyn Seeds hopes to contribute to improving further LEOS support to the individual members and small companies who play such a key part in the advancement of our industry.