Eugene I. Gordon

Eugene I. Gordon
Eugene I. Gordon
Nationality	American
Awards	IEEE Edison Medal
Scientific career
Fields	Physics

Eugene I. Gordon (born New York City, September 14, 1930) is an American physicist. He was Director of the Lightwave Devices Laboratory of Bell Labs

Biography

He received the B.S. degree from City College of New York in 1952, and his Ph.D. in physics from the MIT in 1957.

He has worked in the field of gas-discharge physics, microwave traveling wave tubes, gas and semiconductor, injection, lasers, acousto-opto modulation and deflection devices, and image and display devices.

He graduated Magna Cum Laude from City College of New York in 1952. He received a Ph.D. in Physics from MIT, doing his thesis in gas discharge physics and microwaves and remaining for postdoctoral research on plasma based, thermonuclear fusion. In November 1957 he joined the staff of AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J. becoming Laboratory Director in 1968. Most of his work involved the entire innovative span from research and invention through manufacturing. He led many projects including the invention and development of imaging devices (the indestructible silicon target camera tube) for PICTUREPHONE, the Bell System video telephone system (the tube target was also used in NASA’s Apollo landings); the CCD for digital cameras and astronomy, EBES, the first and still most important commercial electron-beam mask maker for silicon integrated circuit manufacture; and the semiconductor laser devices for the Bell System's Lightwave Systems. He made the essential contribution to the laser reliability for the Bell System's first transatlantic, fiber-optic undersea cable, TAT-8. The issue was viability of semiconductor lasers in underwater repeaters that had to last for 25 years of continuous operation without a single failure, a task that was generally judged as of 1980 to be impossible. He invented and implemented the solution and by 1983 could responsibly inform AT&T that the plan for initial operation in 1988 would not be deterred by laser reliability concerns. Service was implemented on schedule. Ultimately such systems produced many billions of dollars of revenue for AT&T. The TAT-8 system was recently retired with no laser failures. In contrast, the short French and UK legs installed at the same time were similarly free of laser failures. The long haul fiber optic systems are also the backbone of Internet.

Dr. Gordon retired from AT&T in 1983 and founded Lytel, Inc. of Somerville, New Jersey, a manufacturer of lasers and optical transmission subsystems; he was Chairman and CEO. AMP bought Lytel in 1988. He also helped to found Taunton Technology of Monroe, CT (until recently VISX now AMO) in 1984 and was a Board Director of that Company. The latter activity is an outgrowth of his strong interest in medical uses of lasers, a research area to which he made early, important contributions. One of these related to the use of the argon laser and invention of the articulated arm photo coagulator for treatment of blindness associated with diabetic retinopathy with Francis A. L'Esperance, Jr., MD of Columbia University. He joined Hughes Aircraft Company in 1987 as Senior Vice President and Director of their Research Labs located in Malibu, CA. Dr. Gordon has been adjunct professor in the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey since June 1994. He founded Medjet Inc. in 1994. Medjet developed vision correction equipment. He founded Germgard Lighting LLC in 2005. Germgard is developing critical infection prevention technologies.

Developments

During his 26 years at AT&T Bell Labs he and his group discovered and developed several important laser systems, including the well-known, red, helium-neon laser. He invented and developed the powerful, continuous blue-green argon ion laser. He also invented and developed acousto-optic light modulators and deflectors used currently in many opto-electronic systems. Similarly he and his group invented and developed the charge coupled device (CCD) used as the sensing array in most digital camera, television and infra-red imaging systems for military applications, especially the CAMCORDER and facsimile machines. As described below Dr. Gordon invented the solution for making semiconductor lasers sufficiently reliable for long haul fiber optic communications. Dr. Gordon is named inventor on approximately 80 US patents and has published over 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of the NJ Inventors Hall of Fame.

Honors

Dr. Gordon is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (1978), a Fellow of the IEEE, and has been awarded the prestigious IEEE Edison Medal and the IEEE Zworykin Field Award, as well as numerous other awards. He has been active professionally; he founded one IEEE Society, (the predecessor of the Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, LEOS), two IEEE journals, (Journal of Quantum Electronics and Electron Device Letters), has served as associate editor of two IEEE journals, and been active in IEEE Publications and Awards for many years. He was a consultant for DOD and was chairman of Working Group C of the Advisory Group on Electron Devices (AGED is a committee of DOD) from 1970–1981 and a board member of AGED from 1981–1984.

Honors and awards

• IEEE Edison Medal in 1984
• member, National Academy of Engineering in 1978
• IEEE Vladimir K. Zworykin Award in 1975
• Fellow, IEEE 1968