Frederick A Kish, Jr. received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988, 1989, and 1992, respectively. His Ph.D. research work (under Nick Holonyak, Jr.) is part of the core Al-bearing III-V native-oxide technology that has enabled the development of the highest performance VCSELs and has been licensed to VCSEL manufacturers throughout the world.

From 1992 to 1999, he was at Hewlett-Packard’s Optoelectronics Division where he co-invented and led the commercialization of the highest performance (efficiency) red-orange-yellow visible LEDs produced at the time. From 1999 to 2001, he was with Agilent Technologies as the department manager of the III-V R&D and Manufacturing Department in the Network Solution Division. In 2001, he joined Infinera Corporation as vice president of Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) Development and Manufacturing Department, and later, as senior vice president of the Optical Integrated Components Group and member of the office of the COO. Kish is now M.C. Dean Distinguished Professor and NNF Director at NC State University.

Kish is a Fellow of the OSA and IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His awards include the IEEE David Sarnoff Award, the IEEE LEOS Engineering Achievement Award, the OSA Adolph Lomb Medal, and the International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors Young Scientist Award. He has co-authored over 125 U.S. patents, over 150 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications, and 4 book chapters on optoelectronic devices and materials.