Joe Charles Campbell received the BS Degree in Physics for the University of Texas at Austin in 1969, and the MS and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1971 and 1973, respectively.

From 1974 to 1976, he was employed by Texas Instruments where he worked on integrated optics. In 1976 he joined the staff of AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey. In the Crawford Hill Laboratory, he worked on a variety of optoelectronic devices including semiconductor lasers, optical modulators, waveguide switches, photonic integrated circuits, and photodetectors with emphasis on high-speed avalanche photodiodes for high-bit-rate lightwave systems. In January of 1989, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering. In January of 2006, Professor Campbell moved to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville as the Lucian Carr Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

He has coauthored ten book chapters, 400 articles for refereed technical journals, and more than 400 conference presentations. Professor Campbell teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on lasers and optoelectronic components. In 2002, Campbell was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.

Campbell has received a number of awards for his work, including the AT&T Bell Laboratories Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, the IEEE Millennium Medal, the IEE/LEOS William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award, the Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award, the International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors Quantum Device Award, the Heinrich Welker Medal, OSA’s John Tyndall Award, and the IEEE Photonics Award. He is a Fellow of the International Engineering Consortium, the American Physical Society, IEEE, and OSA.