- John B. MacChesney
Dr. John B. MacChesney (July 8, 1929 - ) is a
Bell Labs pioneer inoptical communication , best known for his 1974 invention of themodified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process with colleague P.B. O'Connor, and for co-inventing high-purity "sol-gel" overcladding for optical fiber in the early 1980s. These inventions were key to the commercial manufacture ofoptical fiber .MacChesney was born in
Glen Ridge, New Jersey , in 1929, received his B.A. degree fromBowdoin College in 1951, served in the U.S. Army during theKorean War , and subsequently studied atCity College of New York andNew York University while working inNew York City . In 1959 he received his Ph.D. in geochemistry fromPennsylvania State University , and joined Bell Labs, examining electrical and magnetic properties of ceramics and single crystals. In 1972 he turned his attention to glass and then toerbium and other rare-earth materials for fiber optic amplifiers.He is an adjunct professor at Brown and Rutgers Universities, as well as the
Kwangju Institute of Science and Technology inKorea , and holds more than a hundred domestic and foreign patents. He has received theCharles Stark Draper Prize (1999), theJohn Tyndall Award (1999), theIEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award (1978), and other awards from theAmerican Ceramic Society , theInstitute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers , theAmerican Physical Society ,Sigma Xi , and the Research and Development Council of New Jersey. In 1985 MacChesney was elected to theNational Academy of Engineering .References
* [http://www.nae.edu/NAE/awardscom.nsf/weblinks/NAEW-4NHM8J?OpenDocument Draper Prize biography]
* [http://www.bell-labs.com/news/1999/october/6/1.html Bell Labs press release (Oct. 8, 1999)]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.