I was born in Artesia, New Mexico and lived in New Mexico and West Texas until age nine, when my family moved to central California. and after graduating from high school, attended UC Berkeley, where I graduated with a BS in Chemistry. I then attended graduate school at MIT,  in Cambridge, MA, where I obtained a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry,  working with Prof. Alan Davison as his first graduate student working on technetium coordination chemistry. After graduating, I joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, and along with J. Abys, developed a commercially viable palladium plating process that was used as a gold substitute  for electronic connections. I worked on a variety of other major projects, including on-line optical chemical sensors, electroless copper plating, and optical component packaging. I eventually transitioned into manufacturing and process engineering for  optical components at at both Lucent Technologies and then at E-Tek Dynamics/JDSU in the SF Bay Area.  After several years with JDSU in the role of Quality Director and Technology Transfer Manager, I  joined Capella Photonics, working on wavelength selective optical switching. In 2013, my career took and interesting turn, as Capella was acquired by Alcatel-Lucent, and more recently, Alcatel-Lucent was acquired by Nokia.

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When I'm not working on optical switch development, I enjoy hiking, travel and photography. I've been very fortunate that my professional career has often offered me the opportunity for business travel, and I enjoy taking advantage of such opportunities as they arise. To date, I've been to all 50 US states, and have visited over 50 countries and designated governmental zones (colonies and protectorates).

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