Ira Jacobs joined the faculty at Virginia Tech as Professor of Electrical Engineering and member of the Fiber and Electro- Optics Research Center in 1987 following a career of 32 years at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He received a BS from City College of New York in 1950, and an MS and Ph.D. in physics from Purdue University in 1952 and 1955, respectively. He was at Bell Laboratories from 1955 to 1987, working first in the fields of electromagnetic and communication theory, and then in transmission systems engineering and development, and directed the development of much of AT&T's early fiber optic transmission systems. He was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 1981, and was named a Life Fellow in 1995. He was an Associate Editor of IEEE Photonics Technology Letters from 1993-1996, has been on the IEEE LEOS Sub-Committee on Optical Networks and Systems since 1997, was a member of the IEEE VMS Executive Committee in 1989- 90, 1991-92, and 1994-99, and was Vice-Chair of IEEE Southeastcon '97. He served as Interim Head of the Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering at Virginia Tech in 1994-95.