Susannah Heck

Susannah Heck has a diverse and extensive work experience in the field of photonics. Susannah is currently working at EFFECT Photonics as a Principal Production Engineer - PIC starting from May 2021. Prior to this, they worked at Sivers Photonics from October 2017 to April 2021 as a Principal Device Development Engineer. During their tenure at Sivers Photonics, they built a multi-disciplinary team and lab and led the validation and verification of C- and O-band laser chips for PON and data centers. Susannah also conducted DfM analysis of chip and wafer-level designs to maximize yield.

Before joining Sivers Photonics, Susannah worked at Kaiam Corporation from December 2014 to October 2017 as a Principal Design Engineer. Susannah led the development and validation of new photonic integrated circuits for next-generation >100G transceivers and facilitated the technology transfer from the foundry to a newly acquired fab.

Prior to their work at Kaiam Corporation, Susannah held the position of Senior R&D Engineer at OCLARO from February 2011 to November 2014. Here, they designed photonic integrated circuits for metro applications and managed work packages while also mentoring junior staff.

Susannah's early career includes their role as a Research Associate at Imperial College London from October 2009 to January 2011. During this time, they led the technical contributions to the Aerogel in Fibre-Optics EPSRC grant and co-authored papers in addition to presenting at conferences.

Furthermore, Susannah worked at Tyndall National Institute where they served as a Ph.D. student from October 2005 to September 2009. Their Ph.D. thesis focused on the experimental study of Quantum Dot and Dash Lasers. Susannah also worked as a Research Intern at Tyndall National Institute in 2004 and 2005, where they designed and built experimental systems and liaised with external suppliers and other universities.

Susannah Heck completed their Bachelor's degree in Physics at University College Cork from 2001 to 2005. Susannah then pursued further education and obtained their PhD in Physics from the same institution between 2005 and 2009.