Biography of Dr. Waguih Ishak

(Term expires January 24, 2022)

Dr. Ishak is Division Vice President & Director of Corning West Technology Center (CWTC) in Palo Alto, California. CWTC is part of Global Research and is staffed with scientists and engineers working on high-speed interconnects, novel displays, solid-state illumination and embedded sensors. CWTC is a Corning Innovation Hub in Silicon Valley responsible for business development, collaborations with industry, academia, VCs and startups on the West Coast.

From 2005 to 2007, Dr. Ishak was the Chief Technology Officer and VP of Avago Technologies. Prior to that he served as the VP & Director of the Photonics & Electronics Research Lab at Agilent Labs from 2003 to 2005 where he was responsible for R&D programs in photonics, high-speed electronics, sensors, semiconductor tests, wireless communications and consumer electronics. Dr. Ishak served as the Director of the Communications & Optics Research Laboratory at Hewlett-Packard Labs from 1987 to 2003 where he worked on photonics and integrated electronics. From 1978 to 1987, Dr. Ishak was a Member of Technical Staff and project manager for bubble memories, SAW devices and MSW devices.

He has authored approximately 100 journal and conference papers, and four chapters in the "Handbook of Electronic Instruments." He was named an inventor on seven U.S. patents, and serves on the Technical Advisory Boards of USC, UC San Diego, Santa Clara University, and NRC of Canada. He was a member of the National Academics Committee on "Harnessing the Light" and contributed to the book "Optics & Photonics – Essential Technologies for Our Nation," 2013, resulting in the White House announcement of the Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute on October 2014.

Dr. Ishak received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Cairo University in 1971 and a B.S. in mathematics from Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1973. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D., both in electrical engineering, from McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, in 1975 and 1978, respectively. Dr. Ishak obtained the Stanford University Executive Program in 1999. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, and received the University of California Exemplary Service Award in 2015.