Eric A. Swanson Biography

Eric Swanson is an active participant in a variety of entrepreneurial, industrial, academic, and volunteer activities. He chairs the board of directors for Acacia Communications and is a member of the boards of directors for NinePoint Medical and Curata. He serves on the governing board of the Danish National Quantum Innovation Center is an affiliate of the MIT Deshpande Center for Entrepreneurship and MIT Translational Fellows Program.

He is a co-founder or founding board member of Advanced Ophthalmic Devices (ophthalmic OCT company), LightLab Imaging (cardiovascular OCT company), Sycamore Networks, Acacia Communications, and Curata. During 16 years at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, he participated in the discovery and advancement of OCT and worked on optical networks (including one of the first wavelength division multiplexed all-optical networks) and space communication (including one of the first intersatellite laser communication systems). He has co-authored over two hundred journal articles and conference presentations, seven book chapters; and numerous patents. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Optical Society, and a co-recipient of the 2012 António Champalimaud Vision Award and 2002 Rank Prize in Optoelectronics.