David V. Plant received the B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees all in electrical engineering from Brown University, Providence, RI, in 1984, 1985, and 1989, respectively. From 1989 to 1993, he was a Research Engineer with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCLA. He has been a Professor and member of the Photonic Systems Group in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, since 1993. During the 2000-2001 academic year, he took a leave of absence to become the Director of Optical Integration at Accelight Networks, Pittsburgh, PA. Dr. Plant currently holds a James McGill Professorship and a Bell Canada/NSERC Industrial Research Chair. He was Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, September 2006-May 2011. He is the Director and Principal Investigator of the Centre pour les systèmes et technologies avancés en communications (SYTACom) and the Scientific Director and Principal Investigator of the Healthcare Support Through Information Technology Enhancements (hSITE) Strategic Research Network.
         Dr. Plant has received five teaching awards from McGill University, including the Principal's Prize for Teaching Excellence. He received a Postdoctoral Research Associateship from National Research Council, the PMC-Sierra High Speed Networking and Communications Award from the Canadian Microelectronics Corporation, an IEEE Distinguished Lectureship, and the NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation. Dr. Plant was the recipient of the R.A. Fessenden Medal and the Outstanding Educator Award, both from IEEE Canada. He was recently awarded a Killam Research Fellowship from The Canada Council for the Arts. Dr. Plant is a member of Sigma Xi, a Fellow of the IEEE, the Optical Society of America, and the Engineering Institute of Canada.