Dr. Sébastien Bigo stands as a world-renowned leader in optical communications research with a distinguished career spanning three decades at the forefront of telecommunications innovation. He currently serves as the head of the IP and Optical Networking Research Group at Nokia Bell Labs where he directs cutting edge research in next-generation optical networking technologies. After earning his engineering degree from the prestigious Institut d'Optique Graduate School in France in 1992 he completed his PhD in physics in 1996 with research focused on all-optical processing and soliton transmission. Dr. Bigo has remained deeply connected to his French roots throughout his professional journey having lived and worked in France his entire life while making global contributions to the field of optical communications.
Dr. Bigo's pioneering research has fundamentally transformed high-capacity optical transmission systems through an extraordinary series of breakthrough achievements that include thirty consecutive record-setting experiments across multiple channel rates from 10Gbit/s to 400Gbit/s. His seminal contributions to wavelength division multiplexing technology have enabled exponential growth in fiber optic capacity while maintaining signal integrity over long distances. With an impressive scholarly record of over 350 journal and conference publications and 42 patents to his name his work has been cited more than 11800 times reflecting substantial impact across both academic and industrial domains. Dr. Bigo's innovations in optical transmission have directly contributed to the infrastructure that powers today's global internet and digital communications ecosystem.
Recognized with numerous prestigious honors including the distinction of Bell Labs Fellow in 2012 and IEEE Fellow in 2017 Dr. Bigo has shaped the direction of optical networking research worldwide through his leadership and vision. For nearly thirty years he has been a near-constant presence at the European Conference on Optical Communications attending all but one conference since 1995 and regularly presenting groundbreaking research that defines the field's trajectory. His recent research interests have expanded to automated dynamic elastic optical networks reflecting his forward-looking approach to meeting future communications demands. As a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Photonics Society and a representative of Nokia in Photonics 21 Dr. Bigo continues to influence global research priorities while mentoring the next generation of optical communications researchers.
