Dr. Richard Black, Chief Scientist
Dr. Black leads the IFOS research and development efforts in fiber optic sensor systems, photonic devices, modules and systems. He is an original member of the founding IFOS team and a significant contributor to the IP positions the company has created and maintains. He has published extensively and is a leading expert in the design of fiber optic sensor systems and photonic devices.
Dr. Black has been a Principal Investigator on many projects conducted under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program for NASA, NSF, NIH, NIST and the US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity in fiber optic sensor systems with applications to important commercial products. He has been instrumental in leading the development of innovative fiber optic sensors systems for structural health monitoring, thermal protection system and robotics applications as well as sensorized biopsy needles that use fiber Bragg gratings and shape control mechanisms to enable guided investigations of tumors and maladies found in organs such as the prostate and liver.
Dr. Black has been an Invited Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and lectured at the Università di Padova on optical waveguide technology including grating and coupler fabrication and usage in sensor and communications systems. Prior to that he was at École Polytechnique de Montréal where he had contracts and grants from Nortel and the Canadian government on new devices including fused-tapered couplers and switches and co-directed a series of outstanding graduate students in photonics who went on to found or play leading roles in photonics companies. He has also held visiting positions at the world’s leading photonics labs including Stanford University’s Ginzton Labs, Centre National d’Etudes des Télécommunications (CNET), France, the University of Arizona’s Optical Sciences Center, and the Centre des Recherches en Mathématiques, Université de Montréal.
Dr. Richard J. Black received his PhD in Fiber Optics from the Research School of Physical Sciences at the Australian National University following a BSc (Honors) in Physics from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and AIAA, Life Member of OSA and Member of ACS.
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