Tingye Li

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Tingye Li

Born 1931
Nanjing, China
Residence Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
Nationality American
Fields Engineer
Institutions AT&T
Alma mater University of Witwatersrand
Northwestern University
Notable awards IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize (1975)
OSA Frederic Ives Medal/Jarus Quinn Endowment (1997)

Dr. Tingye Li (traditional Chinese: 厲鼎毅; simplified Chinese: 厉鼎毅; pinyin: Lì Dǐngyì) is a world-renowned scientist in the fields of microwaves, lasers and optical communications. His innovational work at AT&T , which pioneered the research and application of lightwave communication, has had a far-reaching impact on information technology for over four decades.

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[edit] Education and Research

Tingye Li was born in a diplomat’s family in 1931, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, and is the eldest son among his brothers and sisters. His father had been a senior officer of the Chinese Foreign Ministry (Before 1949, the Republic of China) and the ambassador of the nation to many countries. At the age of 12, he left China to meet his father in Canada and has since then started his oversea life before finally settled down in America.

He obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of Witwatersrand, and Ph. D. degree from Northwestern University. After graduation, he became a member of the AT&T Labs in 1957 and has been working there for 41 years until his retirement in 1998. During this time, he has contributed more than 100 journal papers, patents, books and book chapters in the areas of antennas, microwave propagation, lasers and optical communications.

In 1961, Li and his colleague Fox A. Gardner published a paper titled Resonant modes in a maser interferometer, which showed that "a laser beam bouncing back and forth between a pair of mirrors can resonate for a number of modes of energy distribution and for each of these traverse modes there is a different characteristic phase velocity and attenuation per transit." They creatively used computer simulation technique to obtain these important parameters. This work was the first to point out that an open-sided resonator containing a laser medium should have unique modes of propagation, which is fundamental to the theory and practice of lasers. This work is now considered a classic and has been cited over 595 times (SCI) since its publication.

Since the late 1960s, he has been engaged in pioneering research on lightwave technologies and systems, which are now ubiquitously deployed in all arenas of telecommunications. In the late 1980s, when the whole world’s attention on optical communication was still focused on single-channel high speed solution, he and his team developed the world’s first (sparse channel) WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) system at AT&T Labs. With the understanding that a technique that can only be put into real use if it is evolutionary, i.e. be backfwards-compatible, he (and his team) proposed and studied the use of optical amplifiers in WDM system which utilized existing imbedded base to create virtual fibers by putting more channels onto it. Their experiment in 1992 at Roaring Creek turned out to be a ‘roaring’ success as he later said in an interview, allowing per channel 2.5 Gb/s transmission, which was the biggest winner by then. Their using of optical amplifiers changed the paradigm of network economics and is considered to be of revolutionary significance (though it was evolutionary) in the history of lightwave communication.

Li is active in a number of academic societies. He is the initiator of many conferences in optical communication and has often been invited to give plenary speeches. Because of his outstanding contribution and spirit of service, he was elected the President of the Optical Society of America (OSA) in 1995. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Academia Sinica (Taiwan) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Years at AT&T
Division Position Years
Radio Research Department Researcher 1957-1967
Repeater Techniques Research Department Director 1967-1976
Lightwave Media Research Department Director 1976-1984
Lightwave Systems Research Department Director 1984-1996
AT&T Labs-Research, Communications
Infrastructure Research Laboratory		 Division Manager 1996-1998
AT&T Consultant 1999-2002

[edit] A Chinese

Dr. Tingye Li’s father (traditional Chinese: 厲斯昭; simplified Chinese: 厉斯昭; pinyin: Lì Sīzhāo) had served in the Chinese government for many years. His mother (traditional Chinese: 謝緯鵬; simplified Chinese: 谢纬鹏; pinyin: Xìe Wěipéng) is one of the first generation of Chinese women who has received modern higher education and was an activist in the Chinese women’s liberation movement. His father-in-law K. C. Wu (traditional Chinese: 吳國楨; simplified Chinese: 吴国桢; Wade-Giles: Wu Kuo-Chen, pinyin: Wú Gúozhēn) is an important figure in China's modern history and used to be the governor of Taiwan province. He himself has also made a great contribution to the development of China’s optical communication industry. He became one of the first batch of specially hired experts of the Chinese State Council, participating in major state science and technology decision-making. He has also introduced lots of world-class experts to lecture in China, bringing to the country the state-of-art technology in optical communication. Thanks to his effort, the research and application of optical communication in China has made a great progress in the recent 20 years. He was named an honorary professor at many universities in China (including Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Northern Jiaotong University, Fudan University, Nankai University, Tianjin University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and Qufu Normal University), and was granted an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan.

[edit] Philosophy

Li knows the difference between innovation and useful innovation well. He believes that developing components and devices must involve good understanding of systems applications and systems economics. This methodology is largely reflected in his introducing optical amplifiers in WDM which offered network providers a graceful upgrade and has soon been adopted by AT&T and other major service companies. On the personal side, he has nurtured and advised legions of younger colleagues, of whom many affectionately call him "Uncle Tingye."

[edit] Personal

Tingye Li is a very humorous person. His speeches, even on some dull technical topics, are always quite entertaining. One is that on the ITCom 2001 conference, he gave an interesting talk titled "Crouching Technologies and Hidden Profits", in which he imitated the famous Chinese film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Dr. Tingye Li now lives with his wife Edith Wu (traditional Chinese: 吳修惠; simplified Chinese: 吴修惠; pinyin: Wú Xīuhuì) in Boulder, Colorado. He is now an independent consultant in the field of lightwave communications. His brother Ting-Kai Li (traditional Chinese: 厲鼎凱; simplified Chinese: 厉鼎凯; pinyin: Lì Dǐngkaǐ) is a prominent medical scientist and is the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). His brother-in-law is Sherman Wu, well known for his struggles against racism at Northwestern University.

[edit] Quotation

  • "Photonics is a 40 year, overnight success."
  • "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?"

- Tingye Li at OFC '02, adapted from "Ode to the West Wind", by Percy Bysshe Shelley

[edit] Awards and Honors

[edit] Books

  • Optical Fiber Communications: Fiber Fabrication, Tingye Li, 1985
  • Topics in Lightwave Transmission Systems, Tingye Li, 1991
  • Optical Fiber Telecommunications IV-A : Components, Ivan P. Kaminow and Tingye Li, 2002
  • Optical Fiber Telecommunications IV-B : Systems and Impairments, Ivan P. Kaminow and Tingye Li, 2002

[edit] External links