Tech Firm Coherent Inc. Names Young-Kai Chen As Deputy Chief Technology Officer By CIOTechOutlook Team

Tech Firm Coherent Inc. Names Young-Kai Chen As Deputy Chief Technology Officer

CIOTechOutlook Team | Wednesday, 05 July 2023, 11:48 IST

Dr. Young-Kai Chen, who will report to CTO Dr. Julie Sheridan Eng, was named Coherent's deputy chief technology officer, according to an announcement from Coherent Corp.

“The appointment of Dr. Y.K. Chen as Deputy Chief Technology Officer leverages his deep experience as a distinguished scientist as well as his broad view of the technology opportunities gained from his time with Bell Labs and DARPA,” said Dr. Vincent D. Mattera, Jr., Chair and CEO. “As DCTO, Dr. Chen will work closely with Dr. Eng to chart the future technical direction of our company, including the creation of new materials for energy generation, transmission, and storage, basic research around next-generation quantum technologies, breakthroughs required for the sixth generation of wireless networks, and the adoption of digital technologies, machine learning, and artificial intelligence across our operations and in our products and services.”

Dr. Chen served as the group's Chief Scientist for New Ventures and Wide-Bandgap Electronics Technologies before being named DCTO. He was a program manager at DARPA before joining Coherent in 2021, where he created and oversaw projects in advanced semiconductor electronics, secure communications, and the processing of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Prior to joining Nokia Bell Labs, Dr. Chen worked there as a senior director, where he was in charge of cutting-edge research and technology development in high-speed electronics and optoelectronics, including integrated lasers, silicon photonics, coherent optical data connections, and wireless backhaul transceivers.

Dr. Chen earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cornell University. He has received the renowned IEEE David Sarnoff Award and the Edison Patent Award, and he is a Fellow of Bell Labs, IEEE, and Optica (OSA). He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In addition to 33 U.S. patents, he has written or co-written three book chapters, more than 190 journal articles, and over 190 books.