Professor Dr. T Gustafson

Biography

T. Kenneth Gustafson was a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He received a Bachelor of Applied Science and a Master of Applied Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1968. His doctoral thesis focused on nonlinear optical light pulse propagation which included groundbreaking work on self-steepening light pulses and self-phase modulation, as well as the thermodynamic implications of such interactions. Following his graduation from MIT, he became a consultant at Lincoln Laboratory and subsequently joined UC Berkeley, where he continued to advance the field of nonlinear optical pulse propagation. His work contributed to the understanding of coherent pulse probe measurements and the use of tunneling structures in coherent optical detection. Gustafson was a fellow of the Optical Society of America and a member of both the American Physical Society and the IEEE. His recent research interests included applications of coherent electron-hole interactions in semiconductors and quantum fluctuations in optical devices for communication systems. He passed away in October 2025.

Research Interests

Awards