Professor Bill Bridges Memorial Symposium
Tuesday, February 25th, 2025, 4:00pm, Chen 100
Best Practices I Have Learned from Bill and the CEOs of Successful Startup Companies
Join us in celebrating the life of Professor William Bridges. Milton Chang is a long-time colleague and distinguished entrepreneur; Milton's and Bill's relationship spans a period of time that saw the development of laser technologies and the meteoric rise in the applications of photonics. Milton will share his personal stories about Bill and also his insights from his lifelong journey as an entrepreneur.
Dr. Milton M. Chang (MS '65, PhD '69)
Milton Chang is an angel investor mentoring entrepreneurs. He is the author of Toward Entrepreneurship (www.miltonchang.com), and president of Newport Corp and New Focus Inc. He runs Bonsai Heirloom and is an active advisor to several successful tech startup companies. Chang is past president of the IEEE Photonics Society and the Laser Institute of America (LIA), and is a fellow of IEEE, LIA, and OPTICA. He is a Caltech Trustee.
William B. Bridges
William B. Bridges (November 29, 1934 – November 1, 2024) was best known for his invention of the argon ion laser, which is still used today to treat diabetic retinopathy. Bridges was born on Thanksgiving Day in Inglewood, California, to a working-class family. As a teenager, he became a ham (amateur) radio enthusiast, a passion that remained with him his entire life. He attended the University of California at Berkeley and received a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. ('62) in electrical engineering.
Bridges joined the Hughes Research Laboratories division of the Hughes Aircraft Co. in 1961 where he worked briefly on microwave vacuum tubes, then gas lasers. He discovered and patented the noble gas (argon, Krypton, xenon) ion laser in 1964. In 1977, Bridges became professor of electrical engineering and applied physics at Caltech. Six years later, he was named Carl F Braun Professor of Engineering. He continued his research in various areas of electro-optical devices and applications including millimeter-wave dielectric waveguides, optical isotope separation, acousto-optic spectroscopy, and waveguide gas lasers.