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Article

Career Opportunities in Optics

MAY 01, 2000
Demand for ever faster data transmission is fueling rapid advances in fiber optic communications and a frenzied search for personnel trained in optics.
Anthony M. Johnson
C. Breck Hitz

It’s the bandwidth, stupid! That’s the most concise explanation of the explosive growth in interest in optical communications. This year’s Optical Fiber Communications conference drew a record 17 300 people, an astounding 70% increase over an already robust attendance last year. The number of exhibitors at the meeting, which was held in Baltimore in March, was up by 25%. More than 3400 jobs were posted for consideration by a record 300 job seekers—11 jobs per seeker. Similarly, the Photonics West conference, held in San Jose in January, drew a record attendance of 12 141, surpassing the previous year’s attendance by nearly a thousand.

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More about the authors

Anthony M. Johnson, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark.

C. Breck Hitz, Laser and Electro‐Optics Manufacturers' Association, Pacifica, California.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 53, Number 5

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