Bahram Jalali is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at UCLA. He is a Fellow if IEEE and the Optical Society of America, and the Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter of the IEEE Lasers and Electro Optics Society (LEOS). His research interests include silicon photonics, ultra fast analog-to-digital conversion, and real-time spectroscopy. He has published over 200 scientific papers and holds 6 US patents. He is the recipient of the 2007 R.W. Wood Prize from the Optical Society of America for “The Invention and Demonstration of Raman Lasing in Silicon”. In 2005 he was chosen by the Scientific American Magazine as the 50 Leaders Shaping the Future of Technology. While on leave from UCLA from 1999-2001, Dr. Jalali founded Cognet Microsystems, a Los Angeles based fiber optic component company. He served as the company’s CEO, President and Chairman, from its inception through acquisition by Intel Corporation in 2001. From 2001-2004, he was a consultant for Intel Corporation. Dr. Jalali serves on the Board of Trustees of the California Science Center. He has received the BridgGate 20 Award for his contributions to the southern California economy.