Who We Are
Who We Are
“RET and Associates is a custom fiber optic design organization whose staff have over 80 years of professional experience in research, development, and manufacturing. Click here for biographical and background information on our staff.”
Name: Dr. Robert E. Tench
Years of Experience: 40
Position: President and Chief Scientist
Education: Ph.D. in Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B. A. in Physics with High Honors, Swarthmore College
As President and Chief Scientist, Dr. Tench is the principal fiber amplifier developer, responsible for the conception and initial and final designs of Er-, ErYb-, Tm- and Ho-doped fiber amplifiers for device, system, and network customers.
Experience: Most recently Dr. Tench has served as Senior Consultant and Chief Scientific Officer at Cybel LLC in Bethlehem, PA. See www.cybel-llc.com. At Cybel, Dr. Tench is responsible for the development of fiber laser and amplifier product lines at 2 microns. He has spearheaded the 2um effort at Cybel which has led to the addition of multiwatt broadband Tm-doped OEM amplifier products at 2µm. More recently he has started investigation of Holmium-doped fiber amplifiers.
Prior to joining Cybel, Dr. Robert Tench worked at AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Bell Labs, and Agere Systems for 18 years on coherent lightwave transmission systems, Erbium-doped fiber optical amplifiers, and ultra-high bit rate WDM fiber transmission. Dr. Tench has nine issued or submitted patents and is author or coauthor of more than 85 refereed journal and conference publications.
Dr. Tench has also worked on lightwave systems and networks for the National Security Agency and as a Senior Scientist for Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. Tench is an IEEE Senior Member and an OSA Senior Member. He is also a member of the OSA Photonics Society, the SPIE, and Sigma Xi.”
Years of Experience: 40
Position: Chief Technical Officer
Education: Ph.D. in Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder
B. S. in Physics, Illinois institute of Technology, Chicago, IL
As Chief Technical Officer, Dr. Nagel is the principal lightwave systems and networks developer. He is responsible for the concepts and initial and final designs of advanced DWDM fiber optical transmission systems and networks.
Experience: Dr. Nagel has most recently worked as a Consulting Scientist for Nokia Bell Labs and AT&T Bell Labs on the design and characterization of cutting edge DWDM lightwave transmission systems and networks. He has spearheaded the novel and innovative use of OTDR techniques to fully, accurately, and precisely characterize the performance of the vast installed fiber optical plant for AT&T and Nokia.
Before joining Nokia Bell Labs and AT&T Labs, Dr. Nagel was a founder and technical leader at Red Sky Systems and Terraworx, both innovative startups in the field of submarine lightwave systems. He has also worked as a Member of Technical Staff for AT&T and Lucent Bell Laboratories Research, AT&T Network Systems, SAIC International, and as a postdoc at the University of Munich.
Dr. Nagel has written over 80 journal and conference publications and has over 40 patents issued and pending.
Linda Lanton is a Strategy, Corporate Development and Legal Executive with a strong background in leading teams and organizations through organic and inorganic growth. She is well-versed in business combinations including mergers and acquisitions, equity investments, licensing arrangements, joint ventures, and alliances.
Linda also has significant experience in finance developed during her tenure as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs early in her career.
In addition to her role at RET and Associates, Linda currently serves as Special Counsel for Archstone Law Group serving Healthcare clients in the area of private equity, mergers and acquisitions securities law and corporate governance. Linda has a reputation for completing transactions that drive top line revenue and earnings growth.
As Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Bank of America, Linda worked directly with the current CEO, Brian Moynihan to implement an enhanced compliance infrastructure for a securities subdivision (Fleet Specialist) to address operational issues. She implemented recommendations from outside counsel (Wachtel, Lipton) and then created improved training programs, communication protocols and grievance procedures to ensure improved compliance with securities laws and rules of the New York Stock Exchange as well as other Exchanges.
For Motorola, Linda served as Corporate Director and completed corporate mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures that established Motorola’s operating footprint globally in Latin America, Europe and Asia. She also managed a 15-billion-dollar Strategic Investment Portfolio; she established the operation, developed the investment principles and guidelines for the portfolio and monetized $300M in the first year of her group’s operation
Linda is a member of the Board of Directors of the Mental Health Association and the Southwest Suburban Site Board for the Department of Mental Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Linda is currently serving as a Public Defender for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Dr. Robert E. Tench at the 1998 Lucent Technologies Analysts’ Day customer event, demonstrating a world record setting 40 Gb/s line rate DWDM transmission experiment with 1.4 Tb/s total capacity that was designed and developed by the Ogawa Lucent Bell Labs Research Department.
“Dr. Robert E. Tench in the research and development lab working on the performance of highly advanced fiber amplifiers.”
Dr. Jonathan Nagel, a world expert in simulations and analysis of lightwave systems and networks.
Linda Lanton, B.A., M.B.A, J.D., Chief Operating Officer and Corporate Attorney for RET and Associates.