IEEE Photonics Society Mourns The Loss Of Lightwave Pioneer Ivan P. Kaminow

Bell Labs veteran was instrumental to development of key technologies in today's optical communications systems.

The IEEE Photonics Society morns the loss of a good friend and innovator in the field of photonics, Ivan Kaminow, who died on 18 December 2013. He was 83.

Kaminow was born in New Jersey and attended Passaic High School. He received degrees from Union College (BSEE, 1952), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (MSE, 1954) and Harvard University (AM, Ph.D., 1957, 1960).

As a Hughes Fellow at Hughes Aircraft Co. and UCLA (1952-1954) he did research on microwave antenna arrays. He joined Bell Labs in 1954 and served as a Bell Labs Fellow at Harvard from 1956-1960.

Kaminow had a 42-year career at Bell Labs (1954-1996), where he developed several key aspects of light-wave communication systems. He did seminal studies on electro optic modulators and materials, Raman scattering in ferroelectrics, integrated optics (including titanium-diffused lithium niobate modulators), semiconductor lasers (including the distributed Bragg reflector laser, ridge waveguide, and multi-frequency lasers), birefringent optical fibers, and wave division multiplexing (WDM) lightwave networks.

Later, as head of the Photonic Networks and Components Research Department, Kaminow led research on WDM components, including the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, arrayed waveguide grating router and the fiber Fabry-Perot resonator, and on WDM local and wide area networks.

After retiring from Bell Labs, Kaminow served as an IEEE Congressional Fellow on the staffs of the House Science Committee and the Congressional Research Service (Science Policy Research Division) in the Library of Congress. From 1997 to 1999, he returned to Lucent Bell Labs as a part-time consultant. He also established Kaminow Lightwave Technology to provide consulting services to technology companies, as well as patent and litigation law firms.

Beginning in 2004, Kaminow served as an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he had been a visiting professor at Princeton, UC Berkeley, Columbia, the University of Tokyo, and Kwangju University (Korea).

As recently as 2013, Kaminow was honored with the prestigious IEEE Edison Medal “for pioneering, life-long contributions to and leadership in photonic devices and networks instrumental to global high-capacity optical networks.” In 2010, he was awarded the IEEE Photonics Award “For seminal contributions to electro-optic modulation, integrated optics, and semiconductor lasers, and leadership in optical telecommunications.”

Kaminow published more than 240 papers, received 47 patents, and wrote or co-edited ten books, including the Optical Fiber Telecommunication Series, editions II (1988) through VI (2013). He received other numerous awards and honors during his career, including the Bell Labs Distinguished Member of Technical Staff Award, IEEE Quantum Electronics Award, IEEE Third Millennium Medal and Union College Alumni Gold Medal.

Kaminow was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Diplomate of the American Board of Laser Surgery, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, a Life Fellow of IEEE, Fellow Emeritus of the OSA and a Fellow of APS.

Kaminow is survived by his loving wife of more than 60 years, Florence, three children and several grandchildren.