...
David F. Welch co-founded Infinera and currently serves as President and as a member
of the Board of Directors. Previously, he was CTO and VP Corporate Development
at SDL. Dr. Welch holds over 130 patents in optical transmission technologies, and has
authored over 300 technical publications in the same field. In recognition of his technical
contributions to the optical industry, he has been awarded the Optical Society of
America’s Adolph Lomb Medal, Joseph Fraunhofer Award and John Tyndall Award,
and the UK-based Institution of Engineering and Technology’s JJ Thompson Medal
for Achievement in Electronics. He is a Fellow of the OSA and the IEEE. In 2011, Dr.
Welch founded Students Matter, a national non-profit organization dedicated to sponsoring
impact litigation to promote access to quality public education. Its The victory in its first case,
the groundbreaking education equality lawsuit Vergara v. California, is a constitutional challenge to several California statutes governing the processes around teacher tenure, dismissal, and seniority-based layoffs, in its final ruling they found in favor of the plaintiffs and declaring all five statutes unconstitutional. The case is currently under appeal. He holds gained national attention. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from
the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.
...