Ashok most recently joined SUN Microsystems as a distinguished Engineer and Director. Previously, he was President at AraLight where he was responsible for leading product design and development for the company’s optical interconnect product. Prior to that, he was with the Lucent New Ventures as an “Entrepreneur in Residence.” He was also a member of the Advanced Photonics Research Department of Bell Labs where he investigated methods of integrating optical devices to Silicon VLSI circuits. Ashok has achieved several industry milestones including the first array integration of VCSELs with high-speed CMOS VLSI circuits, intra-cavity contacted VCSELs with record K-factor limited bandwidth, the first CMOS-based opto-electronic modulator foundry service, and the first parallel optics transmitter/receiver product with over 100Gbit/s throughput. Ashok was named an IEEE LEOS Distinguished Lecturer for 2002-2004 and awarded the 2004 International Prize in Optics by the ICO for his contributions to optical interconnect architectures. Most recently, he received the 2006 Chairman’s Award from Sun Microsystems.

He was awarded a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of California, San Diego, and graduated with a B.S. in Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.