We are pleased to welcome speakers from across the industry to present at TOP Conference. Read on to find out more about the speakers you will hear from in 2024.
Plenary speakers
Ben Puttnam, Chief Senior Researcher, Photonic Network Laboratory at National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
Ben Puttnam is Chief Senior Researcher with the Photonic Network Laboratory at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Tokyo, Japan. He received the M.Phys. degree in physics from the University of Manchester, U.K, and the Ph.D. degree from University College London, U.K in 2008. In between, he was a switch design engineer at T-mobile, U.K. After research visits to NICT, supported by JSPS and the Photonics group at Chalmers University, Sweden, supported by the Ericsson research foundation, he re-joined NICT, with current research interests focusing on space-division multiplexing and multi-band WDM technologies including devices, systems, and networking.
Harald Bock, VP Network Architecture, Infinera
Harald Bock is responsible for Network Architecture at Infinera. Previously, he worked for Coriant, Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, Marconi and Siemens after earning his PHD in Physics at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. During more than 20 years in the optical networking industry, Harald has held various positions in the CTO office, product management, systems design, R&D as well as sales. Harald is an IEEE member and serves on the board of stakeholders of European Technology Platforms on Photonics (Photonics21).
Speakers
Jörg-Peter Elbers
Jörg-Peter Elbers is VP Advanced Technology, Standards & IPR at Adtran and globally responsible for technology strategy, applied research, standardization, and intellectual property. He directs Adtran’s research and innovation activities in areas such as software-defined networking, network function virtualization, network security, packet-optical networking, data center connectivity, optical access, high-speed optical transmission, and photonic integration. Previously, Jörg held technical expert and management positions at ADVA, Ericsson, Marconi and Siemens. He holds a Dr.-Ing. (PhD) degree in Electrical Engineering from TU Dortmund, Germany, and has more than 25 years of experience in packet-optical networking and communication technologies. Jörg serves on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Photonic Society, the Board of the Information Technology Society (ITG) of the German Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE), the Steering Board of the European Technology Platform Networld Europe, the Steering and Long Range Planning Committees of the OFC conference as well as the Management Committee of the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC). He has authored and co-authored more than 150 publications, 5 book chapters and 20 patents.
Lidia Galdino
Lidia Galdino is a System Engineering Manager at Corning, responsible for defining and driving optical fiber and cable product strategy. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Lightwave Technology, and serves on several technical program committees, including OFC and ECOC. She has authored > 100 peer-reviewed papers on optical fiber communication systems.
Professor Nathan Gomes
Professor Nathan Gomes obtained his BSc(Eng) from the University of Sussex and his PhD from University College London. He undertook a Science Exchange Fellowship at Telecom Paris, before a 30-year plus academic career at the University of Kent. He is now a Professor at University College London, and an Honorary Professor of Optical Fibre Communications at the University of Kent. Professor Gomes’s research has been primarily in the areas of radio over fibre and mobile fronthaul, areas in which he has led a number of national and international projects, and published over 300 refereed journal and conference papers. He was the Technical Program Chair of IEEE International Conference on Communications in London (ICC2015), and has been on the technical program and organizing committees of a number of other conferences and workshops. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and Fellow of the IET.
Siddarth Joshi
Siddarth is an expert in quantum communication. He has worked for several different quantum satellite missions and pioneered quantum networking technologies. He obtained his PhD from Singapore in 2014, did postdocs in Vienna and Bristol and now leads his own group in QET Labs. He is a close collaborator of the Smart Internet Lab. His current research focus is on improving the scalability, distance, and number of supported applications of quantum internet technologies.
George Zervas
George Zervas is an EPSRC Fellow and Professor of optical networked systems at UCL. George has made significant contributions to optical switching and networking as well as architectures and control of data centers and telecommunication networks. His work has contributed to over 275 peer-reviewed papers. Professor Zervas is leading the Optical Networked Systems research team that focuses on optical switching and networking technologies for large-scale computing systems, as well as compute & network co-design. He has been acting as a TPC member and chair on leading conferences such as OFC, ICC, Globecom, ONDM. George has been participating as PI/Co-I in numerous funded collaborative research projects