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Chris Xu
"Working with optics is like playing with children’s toys," says Xu, who received a bachelor’s degree from Fudan University in Shanghai and master’s and doctoral degrees from Cornell. "A lot of times all the pieces are already there; it just depends on how you put them together. So if you have an idea in the shower, you can make it happen without spending five years laying down the groundwork, building a huge machine. One day you come up with a good idea, and you can just open your drawer, assemble the components, and see if it works. That’s the beauty of optics." Some of Xu’s best ideas have come at lunch, and his fastest time from concept to finished prototype is 48 hours, devising a new application for a time lens. In another idea that began as a lunchtime conversation, Xu helped create a world-record transmission capacity, not only making a breakthrough in telecommunications technology but also creating a new product that’s currently being marketed by Lucent Technologies. Concentrating on the practical applications of fiber optics over both long-haul and short-haul systems, he has 14 patents granted or pending, with plans to expand into optical signal processing and biomedical optics in his new laboratory. "Coming back to Cornell is like a homecoming," says Xu, who joined the School of Applied and Engineering Physics in September 2002. He lives with his wife, a Cornell-trained biologist, and their two young children. "When I first came to the United States, my goal was simply to see the outside world and then go back to China. But I find my style of thinking, my way of working, the way I want to live, just fit this place so much better. Cornell is my home." |
Working with high-speed optical systems, Chris Xu loves the dynamics of coming up with a new idea.