Waguih Ishak

Waguih Ishak

Vice President and Chief Technologist

Corning Research and Development Corporation

Dr. Waguih Ishak is the VP and Chief Technologist of Corning Incorporated in Palo Alto, California. Waguih founded and established the Corning West Technology Center (CWTC) in 2007. CWTC is an Innovation Hub in Silicon Valley responsible for business development, collaborations with industry, academia, VCs and startups on the West Coast. Leveraging the Silicon Valley environment, Waguih spends the majority of his time interacting with venture partners and start-ups to identify opportunities for investments and acquisition.

From 2005 to 2007, Ishak was the Chief Technology Officer and VP of Avago Technologies. From 2003 to 2005, Ishak was the VP & Director of the Photonics & Electronics Research Lab at Agilent Labs responsible for R&D programs in photonics, high-speed electronics, sensors, semiconductor tests, wireless communications and consumer electronics. From 1987 to 2003, Ishak was the Director of the Communications & Optics Research Laboratory at Hewlett-Packard Labs, working on photonics and integrated electronics. From 1978 to 1987, Ishak was a Member of Technical Staff and project manager for bubble memories, SAW devices and MSW devices.

Ishak has authored approximately 100 journal and conference papers, and four chapters in the “Handbook of Electronic Instruments.” He was named an inventor on seven U.S. patents. He was a member of the National Academics Committee on “Harnessing the Light” and to write the book “Optics & Photonics – Essential Technologies for Our Nation,” 2013, resulting in the White House announcement of the Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute on October 2014 http://spie.org/x110433.xml. Ishak is a member of the VCAT (Visiting Committee on Advanced Technologies) of the National Institute of Standards Technology, UCSD Dean of the School of Engineering, and the SCU Dean of the School of Engineering.

Ishak received a B.S. in electrical engineering from Cairo University in 1971 and a B.S. in mathematics from Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1973. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D., both in electrical engineering, from McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, in 1975 and 1978, respectively. Ishak obtained the Stanford University Executive Program in 1999. Ishak is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and he received the University of California Exemplary Service Award in 2015.