Stanford, Duke to Launch Centers for Advanced Photonics

STANFORD, Calif., Dec. 15 -- Duke and Stanford universities will receive $25 million each from high-tech entrepreneur Michael J. Fitzpatrick and his wife, Patty, to establish centers for advanced photonics. Michael Fitzpatrick is the former chairman, CEO and president of E-TEK Dynamics Inc., a manufacturer of fiber optic components, before the company merged with JDS Uniphase Corp. last June in the telecommunications industry's second largest merger to date.
We're moving from an electronic world to an optical world, Michael Fitzpatrick said. We want to help create at Duke and Stanford the world's finest centers for photonics, which we hope will coalesce universities, industry and government to enable the full attainment of the potential of optics.
Michael Fitzpatrick has served as CEO of Network Systems Corp. and as president and CEO of Pacific Telesis Enterprises. He joined E-TEK Dynamics in 1997 as president and CEO, and was named chairman in 1999.