Waguih Ishak received a B.Sc. degree (with Honors) in electrical engineering from Cairo University in 1971 and a B.Sc. degree in mathematics (with Honors) from Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1973. His M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering (Magnetic Bubble Memories) were awarded by McMaster University, Ontario, Canada, in 1975 and 1978, respectively. In 1999, Waguih completed the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University.
He joined Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in 1978 where he designed magnetic bubble propagation and detection circuits and surface acoustic wave (SAW) low-loss filters. In 1981, he became a project leader and in 1983 he was the project manager of the Sources and Signal Processing Group. He was responsible for transferring SAW and nonlinear gallium arsenide technologies to HP’s Spectrum Analyzer and Oscilloscope divisions, resulting in many HP products such HP 8562 Microwave Spectrum Analyzer, HP 54121, HP54123 & HP54124 High-Speed Digitizing Scopes.
In 1987, Waguih became the manager of the Photonics Technology Department of the Instruments & Photonics Laboratory which is responsible for R&D programs in fiber optics, integrated optics, optoelectronics, micro-optics, and optical interconnects for applications in measurements, communications (datacom and telecom), and computer interconnects. The department was responsible for generating a new business for HP in lightwave test and measurement such as lightwave component and spectrum analyzers, tunable laser sources, frequency and time-domain reflectometers, and polarization analyzers. The department was also responsible for starting new R&D programs in the areas of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL), high-speed parallel optical interconnects (POLO), optical measurements for process monitoring and control, and electronic digital films for photography and memory applications.
In 1995, Waguih was promoted to Director of the Communications & Optics Research Laboratory (CORL). Waguih led his R&D team in the areas of photonics (fiber optics, integrated optics, optoelectronics, and micro-optics) and integrated electronics. The emphasis was on fiber-optic communications, wireless communications and the use of optics and electronics in novel applications in communications, computations and measurements. Many products came out from the research work such as the optical mouse, the photonic switch and the parallel optical interconnects modules.
In 2003, Waguih became the Director of the Photonics & Electronics Research Lab (PERL) at Agilent Labs (Agilent was spun off by HP in 1999), responsible for the R&D programs in photonics, high-speed electronics, sensors, semiconductor test, wireless communications and consumer electronics. Many Agilent products were based on technologies developed in PERL including the laser mouse and the 40 Gb/s parallel optical interconnect transceivers.
In 2005, Waguih became the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Avago Technologies. Waguih manages the company’s U.S. Advanced R&D Center and was responsible for creating technologies for applications in mobile electronics and optoelectronics.
In 2007, Waguih joined Corning Incorporated as the Division VP and Director of the Corning West Technology Center. Waguih manages a team of scientists to develop applications for Corning’s glass and fiber technologies and to conduct state-of-the-art research in the areas of microstructures and nanotechnology.
Waguih has authored about 80 journal and conference papers, and four chapters in the "Handbook of Electronic Instruments." He is a Fellow of the IEEE and was named an inventor on seven US patents.