Donald Keck

Donald B. Keck ( born January 2, 1941 in Lansing, Michigan) is an American physicist who was a pioneer in optical waveguides.

Keck studied physics at Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in 1962, her Master's degree in 1964 and his doctorate in 1967. Afterwards he went to the Corning Glass Works, where he late 1960s with Robert D. Maurer and Peter C. Schultz the first suitable for long-range communication optical fibers developed, with losses below 20 decibels per kilometer. They were doped with titanium and manufactured in a special heating process.

At Corning, he was also involved in the invention further technological advances in optical glass fibers substantially involved ( germanium doped glass fibers, Inside Vapor Deposition (IV ), outside vapor deposition ( OV ) ).

He was head of development in optical physics and built in this period the photonics at Corning Glass on. In 1997, he was Vice President and Executive Director of Research at Corning Glass in 2002 and went into retirement. Then he built the info tonics Technology Center in Canandaigu in upstate New York.

In 2000 he was awarded with Maurer and Schultz, the National Medal of Science in 1993 and all three were included in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 2004 he became an honorary doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Keck has published over 150 works and holds 36 patents. He was editor of the Journal of Lightwave Technology 1989.