Donald Keck facts for kids

Donald B. Keck is an American scientist. He is famous for helping to create a very important invention: the low-loss optical fiber. This special fiber allows light signals to travel long distances without losing much power. It made modern telecommunications possible.

Keck grew up in Lansing, Michigan. He went to Michigan State University. After finishing his studies, he joined the research team at Corning Incorporated. There, he worked with Robert D. Maurer and Peter C. Schultz. Together, they designed the first optical fiber that was good enough for widespread use.

Donald Keck spent his whole career at Corning, Inc.. He became a Vice President there. He helped guide the company into the field of photonics. This is the science of using light. For his amazing work, he was honored in many ways. He was put into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1993. He also received the National Medal of Technology in 2000. This is a very high award for inventors.

Donald Keck's Early Life and Education

Donald Keck was born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1941. He grew up there. In 1958, he started studying at Michigan State University. He first planned to become an electrical engineer. But his father convinced him to study physics instead.

He earned his first degree in physics in 1962. Then he got his master's degree in physics in 1964. Both degrees were from Michigan State. He continued his studies and earned his Ph.D. in physics in 1967. His Ph.D. work focused on infrared spectroscopy.

After getting his Ph.D., Keck moved to New York. He accepted a job offer from Corning. He started working there as a senior research scientist in January 1968.

How Donald Keck Invented Optical Fiber

At Corning, Donald Keck joined the Optical WaveGuide Project team. Instead of trying to make existing fibers better, the team tried something new. They explored new materials. One important material was pure silica, which is a type of glass.

Keck and his team started their work in early 1968. They tried different glass mixtures. They also experimented with ways to heat the glass. In August 1970, Keck tested a new batch of fibers. He noticed that light passed through a 65-foot fiber with almost no loss. He was very surprised!

Keck took more measurements. He found that the fiber had a very low signal loss. It was 16 db/km. This was even better than their goal of 20 db/km. He wrote "Eureka" and "Whoopee!" in his lab notebook. This was a big moment. Keck and his team had invented the first low-loss optical fiber. It was made of heat-treated titanium-doped silica. They quickly wrote papers and filed patents for their invention.

Improving the Optical Fiber

Donald Keck kept working to make the fiber even better. He changed the material from titanium oxide glass to germanium oxide-doped glass. By June 1972, he achieved an even lower signal loss of 4 db/km.

By the end of the 1970s, Keck had made four key inventions. These inventions helped Corning become a leader in optical fiber. They included:

• Fused silica doped with titanium.
• Fused silica doped with germanium.
• The inside vapor deposition (IV) process for making fiber.
• The outside vapor deposition (OV) process for making fiber. This OV process became the main way to make optical fibers.

By 1979, Corning was making huge amounts of this improved optical fiber. This happened in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Later Career and Retirement

In 1989, Keck was chosen to be the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Lightwave Technology. He held this job until 1994. In April 1997, Corning made him a division vice president. He was in charge of core technology, optics, and photonics.

Donald Keck retired from Corning in 2002. At that time, he was the vice president and director of research. After retiring, Keck helped start the Infotonics Technology Center. This center works on new ideas in photonics and nanotechnology. He was the first chief technology officer there for a short time.

Donald Keck's Personal Life

Donald Keck and his wife, Ruth, live in Big Flats (town), New York. They have two adult children. Both of their children also work in technology. Lynne Vaia is a civil engineer. Brian Keck is a software expert.

Keck helps his local community in Corning. He serves on the boards of groups like the American Red Cross. He also helps the Community Foundation and the Science Center. He still advises Infotonics. He is also active in the science community. He serves on the board for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He is also the vice-chair of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Board of Directors. Keck also supports his old university, Michigan State. He is on the advisory board for their College of Natural Science.

Awards and Honors for Donald Keck

Donald Keck has received many awards for his work. Michigan State University named him a Distinguished Alumnus. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute gave him an honorary degree in 2004.

In 1992, he received the John Tyndall Award. This award is from The Optical Society and IEEE Photonics Society. The Optical Society also made him a Fellow in 1972. In 2012, they made him an Honorary Member. This is their highest honor.

In 1993, Keck was put into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. This was for his discovery of low-loss optical fiber. He later served as President of the Hall of Fame Foundation. Also in 1993, he became a member of the National Academy of Engineering. This was for inventing and developing ways to make low-loss glass fibers for communication.

He also received the Department of Commerce American Innovator Award. He got the SPIE Technology Achievement Award too. In 2002, he received Laurin Publishing's Distinction in Photonics Award. This was for his work with photonics.

In 2000, U.S. President Bill Clinton gave Keck a very special award. It was the National Medal of Technology. His fellow Corning researchers, Maurer and Schultz, also received it. The award recognized their invention. It said their work "enabled the telecommunications revolution." It also said it "rapidly transformed our society, the way we work, learn and live." Their invention is now the basis for one of the world's largest industries.

Donald Keck's Patents

Donald Keck holds 36 U.S. patents. He also wrote over 150 papers about optical fibers. Here are a couple of his important patents:

• U.S. Patent 3,659,915  (1972) Maurer, et al., "Fused Silica Optical Waveguide."
• U.S. Patent 3,711,262  (1973) Keck, et al., "IV Method of producing optical waveguide fibers."