The Aron Kressel Award is given to recognize those individuals who have made important contributions to opto-electronic device technology. The device technology cited is to have had a significant impact on their applications in major practical systems. The intent is to recognize key contributors to the field for developments of critical components, which lead to the development of systems enabling major new services or capabilities. These achievements should have been accomplished in a prior time frame sufficient to permit evaluation of their lasting impact. The work cited could have appeared in the form of publications, patents, products, or simply general recognition by the professional community that the individual cited is the agreed upon originator of the advance up which the award decision is based. The award may be given to an individual or group, up to three in number. The deadline for nominations is 30 April.
     The IEEE Photonics Society Aron Kressel Award will be presented to Larry Coldren and Jack Jewell, “for original contributions enabling low threshold, manufacturable VCSELs.” The presentation will be made during the Awards Banquet at the 2009 Photonics Society Annual, 4th–8th October at the Ela Quality Resort in Belek-Antalya, Turkey.

Larry A. Coldren

Larry A. Coldren is the Fred Kavli Professor of Optoelectronics and Sensors at the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1972. After 13 years in the research area at Bell Laboratories, he joined UC-Santa Barbara in 1984 where he now holds appointments in Materials and Electrical & Computer Engineering, and is Director of the Optoelectronics Technology Center. In 1990 he co-founded Optical Concepts, later acquired as Gore Photonics, to develop novel VCSEL technology; and in 1998 he co-founded Agility Communications, later acquired by JDSU, to develop widely-tunable integrated transmitters.
     At Bell Labs Coldren initially worked on waveguided surface-acoustic-wave signal processing devices and coupled-resonator filters. He later developed tunable coupled-cavity lasers using novel reactive-ion etching (RIE) technology that he created for the then new InP-based materials. At UCSB he continued work on multiple-section tunable lasers, in 1988 inventing the widely-tunable multi-element mirror concept, which is now used in some JDSU products. During the late eighties he also developed efficient vertical-cavity multiple-quantum-well modulators, which led to novel vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) designs that provided unparalleled levels of performance. Prof. Coldren continues to be active in developing new photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and VCSEL technology, including the underlying materials growth and fabrication techniques. In recent years, for example, he has been involved in the creation of efficient all-epitaxial InP-based and high-modulation speed GaAs-based VCSELs as well as a variety of InP-based PICs incorporating numerous optical elements for widely-tunable integrated transmitters, receivers, and wavelength converters operating up to 40 Gb/s.
     Professor Coldren has authored or co-authored over 1000 journal and conference papers, 7 book chapters, 1 textbook, and has been issued 63 patents. He has presented dozens of invited and plenary talks at major conferences, he is a Fellow of the IEEE, OSA, and IEE, the recipient of the 2004 John Tyndall Award, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Jack Jewell

Jack Jewell led a BellLabs/Bellcore collaboration that sparked international industrial VCSEL development by demonstrating over 1 million VCSELs on a single chip in 1989. The devices incorporated several key features introduced by Jewell, which are still part of today’s devices, and which enabled the performance, manufacturability and reliability essential for commercialization. Later, Jewell patented practical versions of “oxide VCSELs,” 1310 nm VCSELs, thermally-more-stable VCSELs and novel optical coupling mechanisms. VCSELs are now used daily by billions of people in datacommunications and computer mouse applications, and are poised to enable more products. The power-hungry communications industry consumes less power due to its use of VCSELs for short-reach communications.
     In 1991, Dr. Jewell co-founded Vixel Corp, the first company committed to VCSEL commercialization, which went public in 1999 and was later acquired by Emulex. Jewell founded Picolight Inc. in 1995, quickly establishing it as a leader in intellectual property, then in commercialization of oxide VCSELs, small-form factor transceivers, parallel optical interconnects, 10 Gb/s transceivers, and 1310 nm VCSEL transceivers. Jewell was principal investigator on U.S. Government R&D contracts totaling > $10M, and was key to raising venture capital. With its world-leading VCSEL operation, Picolight was acquired by JDSU in 2007 for $115M. Jewell received his Ph.D. in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona in 1984. He has 67 U.S. Patents and over 250 publications. Recently, Jewell co-founded Tru-Ray Cable Corp.