Directly after obtaining his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering cum laude from TU/e in 1979, Ton Koonen joined Philips’ Telecommunications Industry to work on optical fiber communication systems. Then, he moved to Bell Laboratories within AT&T Network Systems and later Lucent Technologies in 1987 to work on optical fiber systems for hybrid access networks. In 1991, he also became a part-time professor at the University of Twente. Then in 2001, Koonen received an enticing offer to come back to TU/e and Brabant, his home province.

‘I was offered a position as a full professor in electrical engineering, even though I didn’t have a PhD. When I started, the last thing on my mind was to complete a PhD, given that a full professor role is always way too busy and demanding. Where would I find the time to do it?’ Koonen comments.

That time finally came when he retired. ‘Back in 2012, I was awarded an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant worth 2.5 million euros to work on ground-breaking research on optical communication beyond optical fiber technologies. I carried out my PhD research as part of that grant on a part-time basis, next to running a research group and being vice-dean of the department for eight years.’

‘The best way to describe what I did is that I worked on the development of the optical flavor of WiFi,’ the eminence grise explains. ‘I spent lots of time in the lab working on shaping the experimental setups, and on the design of tools to calculate how light moves through different materials and structures, for instance. Alongside the researchers in the group, I enjoyed tinkering and being part of the experimentation process.’

With the PhD finally added to his CV, what does Ton Koonen plan to do in the future? ‘Well, I’d like to advise on how to move forward in the future with optical wireless communication systems. There is a huge potential in these. But I am retired, so I may need more time to slow down, relax, and enjoy retirement.’