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Gee-Kung Chang

Telecommunications / Optics and Photonics

Professor Gee-Kung Chang's research interests include optoelectronic and microwave photonic interconnect subsystems, optical networks and systems, wireless over optical fiber networking technologies and next-generation optical internet.

At GEDC, a major research focus area for Chang is 60 GHz Wireless Over Fiber. This technology could enable the sending of an ultra-high bandwidth, protocol-agnostic signal over existing fiber optic networks.

This signal would then be distributed locally in homes and offices using wireless CMOS transceiver technology of the type developed by GEDC’s Multi-gigabit Wireless team, headed by Joy Laskar. This technique would allow delivery of hundreds of high-definition video channels to computers and televisions and provide larger than 1 gigabit per second access bandwidth to future mobile terminal users.

Dr. Chang earned his bachelor degree in Physics from National Tsinghua University in Taiwan in 1969, and his doctoral degree from the University of California, Riverside, in 1976. He spent the following two years doing postdoctoral research in experimental electron/photon physics at Brookhaven National Lab and Cornell Electron-Synchrotron Lab. He spent the next 23 years within Bell Systems in New Jersey -- Bell Labs, Bellcore, and Telcordia Technologies. He served in various capacities including Director of the Optical Networking Systems and Testbed, Director of the Optical System Integration and Network Interoperability, and finally, Director and Chief Scientist of the Optical Internet Research Group.

Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he served as Vice President and Chief Technology Strategist of OpNext Inc., in charge of technology planning and product strategy for advanced optical networking components.

Chang has been granted 56 U.S. and international patents in the area of optoelectronic devices, high speed integrated circuits, optoelectronics switching components and systems, DWDM optical networking elements and systems, multiwavelength optical networks, optical network security, optical label switching technology, wireless over fiber techniques, and high speed optical interconnects for next generation servers and computers.

He has co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. He received Bellcore President’s Award in 1994 for his leadership role in Optical Networking Technology Consortium, and he won R&D 100 Award in 1996 for his contribution to Network Access Module. He was elected a Telcordia Fellow in 1999 for pioneering work in DWDM optical networking projects in MONET and Next Generation Internet.

He is a Fellow of the Photonics Society of Chinese America, a Fellow of IEEE, and a Fellow of Optical Society of America for pioneering contributions to DWDM optical networking and switching technologies.

He has served on and organized many IEEE LEOS and OSA conferences and committees. He has served three times as the lead guest editor for special issues of the Journal of Lightwave Technology sponsored by IEEE LEOS and OSA. The first issue was published in December 2000 on Optical Networks, the second one in November 2004 on Metro and Access Networks, and the most recent in 2007 on Convergence of Optical Wireless Access Networks. He is a guest editor of a special issue on Radio Over Optical Fiber Networks for the Journal of Optical Networks by the Optical Society of Americas in 2009.

Gee-Kung Chang
Byers Endowed Chair Professor in Optical Networks
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

404-385-2712
gkchang@ece.gatech.edu