Dr. Donald Keck is a professor in the USF Institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation. He formerly was vice president and executive director of research at Corning, Inc. He has a BS, MS, and PhD in physics from Michigan State University (MSU). After graduating from MSU, he took a position at Corning Inc. in 1968 working with Robert Maurer. Working collaboratively with Maurer and Peter Schultz over the next two years, he made seminal contributions to fiber optics. Inventing a series of material and processing concepts, they were able to improve the transparency of fused silica and doped fused silica glasses by nearly 100 orders of magnitude. This enabled optical communications and established optical fiber rather than copper wire as the key communication conduit. Their work, in reality, enabled the internet. More than 3.7 billion kilometers of optical fiber based on their inventions encircle the planet. Keck is recognized as a pioneer in optical fiber communications for this work. Continuing at Corning, he became vice president and executive director of research, retiring in 2002. He holds 38 patents and has authored more than 150 papers on optical fibers and related topics. Among his many honors are: the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton; induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame; the John Tyndall award from The Optical Society (OSA) and the IEEE/Photonics Society; the U.S. Department of Commerce American Innovator Award; the SPIE Technology Achievement Award; and Laurin Publishing's Distinction in Photonics Award. He has an honorary doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is an honorary member of OSA, and a fellow of the IEEE. He served as editor of the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology and generously donated his time to the OSA community. After retirement, Keck helped established the Infotonics Technology Center in Canandaigua, New York, and is now working with the University of South Florida.