At the IEEE Honors Ceremony in New York City on 18 June, Dr David F. Welch - co-founder & president of Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical transport networking systems incorporating its own indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) - received the 2016 IEEE Ernst Weber Managerial Leadership Award, recognizing exceptional managerial leadership in the fields of interests to the IEEE. Welch was specifically honored for his leadership in enabling the growth of cloud-based services and the Internet in optical transport networks.
The IEEE Awards Program has paid tribute to researchers, inventors, innovators and practitioners whose exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions have made a lasting impact on technology, society and the engineering profession. Each year, the IEEE Awards Board recommends a small number of outstanding individuals for IEEE's most prestigious honors.
Welch leads Infinera's engineering, business development and marketing groups. He has made numerous contributions to the field of optical communication systems (including more than 250 published articles and 169 patents).
Welch has received a number of honors and awards including the 2013 Institute of Engineering and Technology J J Thomson Medal for Electronics, 2011 Optical Society of America (OSA) John Tyndall Award, 1999 OSA Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize, 1998 IEEE LEOS Engineering Achievement Award and the 1992 OSA Adolph Lomb Medal. He serves on the board of directors for OSA and Infinera, and is a fellow of OSA and IEEE.
