News: Optoelectronics
22 June 2022
POET appoints silicon photonics expert Michal Lipson as board advisor
POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — a designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for the data-center and telecom markets — has appointed Michal Lipson, a pioneer in silicon photonics as well as a highly published researcher in physics, as an advisor to its board of directors. The firm also plans to nominate Lipson as a director at its upcoming Annual General Meeting scheduled for 6 October.
“Michal is a pioneer of silicon photonics, president-elect of the Optical Society of America (OSA), MacArthur Fellow, member of the National Academy of Science, founder of three startups, and inventor of 45+ US patents on transformative photonic technologies,” notes chairman & CEO Dr Suresh Venkatesan. “Her impressive track record and highly regarded opinion in the field of optics and photonics will be invaluable to POET and our board, and we look forward to leveraging her perspective, guidance and expertise,” he adds. “We will be proposing to shareholders at the upcoming AGM an increase in the size of the board and appointment of both Michal and Theresa Lan Ende.”
Lipson is currently a Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor of Applied Physics at Columbia University. Her research focus is on Nanophotonics and includes the investigation of novel phenomena, as well as the development of novel devices and applications. Lipson pioneered critical building blocks in silicon photonics, which today is recognized as one of the most promising directions for solving the major bottlenecks in microelectronics. She is the inventor of over 45 issued patents and has co-authored more than 250 scientific publications. In recognition of her work in silicon photonics, she was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was also awarded the NAS Comstock Prize in Physics, the MacArthur Fellowship, the Blavatnik Award, the Optical Society’s R. W. Wood Prize, the IEEE Photonics Award, and has received an honorary degree from Trinity College, University of Dublin. In 2020, she was elected the 2021 Vice President of The Optical Society and will serve as OSA President in 2023. Every year since 2014 she has been named by Thomson Reuters as a top 1% highly cited researcher in the field of Physics.
Lipson’s work has been cited in high-impact journals such as Nature, Nature Photonics, Nature Physics, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Nanoletters, Lab on Chip, Physical Review Letters and IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technologies. Today more than 1000 papers published yearly involve devices and circuits based on Lipson’s original modulators or based on other silicon photonics devices demonstrated by her group, including slot waveguides.
Option grant
For her services as an advisor for the period from 20 June through the date of the next Annual General Meeting, the board of directors has approved a combination of option grants and cash payment equivalent to the compensation of other members of the board who hold no committee chair positions. Specifically, a grant of 5194 options will made to Lipson, which will vest monthly in arrears over 4 months. The options are exercisable for 10 years at a price of CAD$6.59, being the closing price of the firm’s shares on 20 June. In addition, Lipson will receive a cash payment of US$7500. The options were granted subject to provisions of the firm’s 2021 Stock Option Plan and are subject to the TSX Venture Exchange policies and applicable securities laws.
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