Julie Sheridan

Dr. Eng was named Chief Technology Officer in October 2022 after successfully running Coherent Corp.’s Optoelectronic Devices and Modules Business Unit as Senior Vice President and General Manager since 2019. In that role, she oversaw engineering, product management, and operations for GaAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), InP directly modulated lasers (DMLs) and detectors, and CMOS/BiCMOS integrated circuits for datacom, 3D sensing, and high-volume consumer applications. Before Coherent, Dr. Eng held a number of senior management positions at Finisar since 2003, including Executive Vice President and General Manager of 3D Sensing and Executive Vice President of Datacom Engineering. Over the 15 years that she managed datacom transceiver engineering, her teams released over 180 fiber-optic transceiver products and achieved numerous industry firsts.

Dr. Eng began her career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where she led the development of laser-based datacom transceivers. She has been a tireless advocate of women’s contributions to STEM. She is a past chair of the IEEE Committee on Women in Engineering and presently serves on the SPIE Executive Advisory Group. Dr. Eng graduated summa cum laude from Bryn Mawr College with a bachelor’s degree in Physics and also holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with honors from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She also earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. In was 2022, Dr. Eng was elected a Fellow of Optica for distinguished contributions to the advancement of optics and photonics, and was elected to the Optica Board as a director-at-large. She has published over a dozen papers, co-authored a book chapter, holds six U.S. patents, and has given numerous invited talks.