This is EARI's home run.
Thomas Mensah
One of the Original Fiber Optics Innovators; Fellow National Academy of Inventors and Author of 4 Books, Chairman of Lightwave and Wireless Inc.; President of Georgia Aerospace, A Nanotechnology Products Company. Chairman Entertainment Arts Research Inc.
Dr. Tom Mensah is a Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors and one of the four original Fiber Optics Innovators and inventors in the United States, whose contributions provided the enabling technologies that permitted the world wide replacement of copper wire cables with fiber optic cables. This innovation led to the wiring of America with this new media. He holds seven US patents in Fiber Optics, averaging one patent a year, all awarded in the short time frame of six years.
As a young chemical engineer at Corning Glass Works, where fiber optics was invented, Tom Mensah solved an industry-wide problem through a series of inventions that permitted optical glass fibers to be manufactured at speeds 10 times the industry standard in the early eighties. This speed barrier has been in place for almost 15 years, since practical optical fiber was developed at Corning Glass Works in the early 70's. The manufacturing rate of fiber optics was 2 meters a second due to incessant breakage of the fragile glass, as it is being drawn. Tom Mensah developed a system that allowed thin protective coating to be applied to the glass while it is pulled at ultra high speeds 20 meters a second without manufacturing interruption due to glass breakage (setting a world record). This led to low cost optical fibers which support a faster and robust internet of today.
