Dr. Jim Sluss has over fifteen years of research and development experience in the following areas: modeling of integrated optical devices for fiber optic transmission systems; design of telecommunications and data communications interfaces for Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) fiber optic transmission systems; design and deployment strategies for fiber optic wide area networks (WANs) and local area networks (LANs); development and characterization of photonic materials; design and fabrication of fiber-based devices; characterization of electro-optic materials and fabrication of components for information processing and display applications.

Dr. Sluss earned his doctorate in Electrical Engineering in 1989 from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. In addition to his academic service, he held positions as Director of Telecommunications and Data Products, and later as Vice President of Operations, with Opcom, Inc. from 1994-1997. He holds seven U. S. patents, has authored/co-authored numerous journal and conference publications, and has been involved in externally-funded research projects totaling more than $22M. He is a member of the IEEE, OSA and ASEE. He currently serves as an elected member of the Administrative Committee of the IEEE Education Society.