Young-Kai (Y. K.) Chen in

Young-Kai (Y. K.) Chen

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Deputy Chief Technology Officer at Coherent Corp.
📍 New Providence, New Jersey, United States

Young-Kai Chen is the Deputy Chief Technology Officer at Coherent Corp., leveraging extensive experience from Bell Labs and as a Program Manager at DARPA. An expert in high-speed optoelectronics and semiconductor devices with a Ph.D. from Cornell University, he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of both IEEE and Optica.

He is a prolific inventor who holds over 30 U.S. patents and has authored or co-authored over 190 journal articles.

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Experience
46 Years
Current Role
Deputy Chief Technology Officer
Job Level
Leadership
Location
New Providence, New Jersey, United States
Personality Overview

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Communication Style
Decision Approach
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Priorities

Topics Young-Kai cares about

Quantum Communications
Expressed excitement for demonstrating secured data traffic with quantum key distribution over optic fiber, a key area for Coherent's future technology direction.
AI/ML Hardware
His role involves adopting machine learning across Coherent's products, and he previously managed AI/ML processing programs at DARPA.
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Career

Work history

7-2023
Deputy Chief Technology Officer
Coherent Corp.
10-2021
Chief Scientist
Coherent Corp.
9-2017 - 10-2021
Program Manager
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
7-2016
Memeber
Academia Sinica, Taiwan
1-2013 - 10-2021
Adjunct Professor
National Chiao Tung University
In the press

Media appearances

In Memoriam: Young‑Kai Chen, 1953‑2026. Featured in Optica (The Optical Society)
See now
Coherent Names Deputy CTO, Appoints VP: People in the News. Featured in Photonics.com (Photonics Spectra)
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Education
1985 - 1988
Ph.D
Cornell University
1978 - 1979
MS
Syracuse University
Social presence
in
Behavioral profile

DISC profile (public)

DISC behavioral profile

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Other Coherent Corp. Employees

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Jessica Pastor -- MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
Jessica Pastor -- MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
Director, Talent Management and Learning
Coherent Corp.

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