John Bowers

John E. Bowers is Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency and a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also CTO and cofounder of Calient Networks and Chairman of the Board of BioIQ. His research interests are primarily concerned with silicon photonics, optoelectronic devices, optical switching and transparent optical networks. Bowers is cofounder of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Engineering Management, and founder of Terabit Technology (sold to Ciena). Bowers received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. He worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories and Honeywell before joining UCSB.


Bowers is a fellow of the IEEE, OSA and the American Physical Society, and a recipient of the IEEE LEOS William Streifer Award and the South Coast Business and Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He was an elected member of the IEEE LEOS Board of Governors, a LEOS Distinguished Lecturer, and Vice President for Conferences for LEOS. He has published eight book chapters, 450 journal papers, 700 conference papers and has received 52 patents. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He and coworkers received the ACE Award for Most Promising Technology for the hybrid silicon laser in 2007.