Gerard A. Alphonse

Gerald A. Alphonse is an electrical engineer, physicist and research scientist, and was the 2005 president of the United States division of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Alphonse is the author and co-author of over 120 technical papers and holds over 50 U.S. patents, and has served on several of IEEE's committees and boards.

A native of Haïti, Dr. Alphonse holds the BSEE and MSEE from New York University, and a PhD in electrophysics from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He joined RCA Laboratories (now Sarnoff Corporation) in 1959. In January 2003, he took retirement from Sarnoff to pursue his interest in consulting start-up high-tech companies.

Dr. Alphonse's career at Sarnoff involves pioneering work and major contributions in a broad range of technical areas. From 1959 to 1967 he worked on the development of superconductive devices. His other research activities include original contributions in the development of photochromic cathode ray storage and projection tubes, holography in photorefractive media, broadband acousto-optic deflectors, holographic data storage, ultrasonic imaging for medical diagnostics, videodiscs, optical disc media development. He has served as chief scientist and program manager for the development of semiconductor laser diode arrays, optical amplifiers, superluminescent diodes, the psychophysics of large area displays, vision modeling, and distributed feedback lasers for caesium atomic clocks.

In 1986 he invented and demonstrated the world's highest performance superluminescent diode (SLD), and transferred the technology in 1989 to GE-RCA in Canada, which became a division of EG&G.

Dr. Alphonse spent 16 years as adjunct faculty in the Electronic Physics Department at LaSalle University's Evening Division, and served for four years as the head of the department. He has also taught electrical engineering courses in Linear Systems, Communications, and Microwave Theory at the College of New Jersey.

He has received four David Sarnoff outstanding achievement awards, an IEEE Region 1 Award, and the IEEE Millennium Award. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a member of the honorary societies Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, and a member of the Science & Arts Committee of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.