Founder

Fostering Innovation at Optelecom

At Optelecom, Gould transitioned from being a physicist to an optical engineer, focusing on applied research and development. The company’s initiatives included contract research for optical communication systems, as well as a product line of transmitters and receivers specifically designed for optical fibers. One significant project for the company involved developing systems to integrate a video sensor at the end of an optical fiber, allowing for the transmission of laser signals for the U.S. Army Missile Command.

In 1983, Gould also brought in David Huber, an expert in optical fibers. Huber’s contributions were instrumental in advancing wave division multiplexing (WDM), which laid the groundwork for future innovations in the field.

Optelecom 5000 Fiber Optic.

Some of the founding members of Ciena stand in front of the company’s Maryland office in 1995. From left to right: Pat Nettles, Larry Huang, Steve Chaddick, and David Huber.

Inspiring Connectivity

On November 13, 1993, exactly 36 years after Gould’s laser invention, he co-founded the Ciena Corporation with Huber and Kevin Kimberlin. The company’s founding was detailed in a keynote by Kimberlin, highlighting the partnership with Culver, Optelecom’s chief executive officer, to build a complete optical networking system. The goal was to unleash the largely unused capacity of fiber optics, leading to a “paradigm shift in communications.

Ciena developed critical technologies, including the first dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) system, deployed in mid-1996. Then, a year later, when the company went public, Ciena’s market capitalization reached $3.4 billion.

Based on a dual-stage optical amplifier, this system addressed light dissipation in fiber-optic cables by correcting wave shifts and boosting signals, integrating with DWDM to allow multiple light wavelengths to carry data simultaneously. Huber’s invention of the erbium-doped fiber amplifier, derived from earlier work by David Payne and Emmanuel Desurvier, was pivotal.

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