Special to the Tribune
By Sage Birchwater
A native son of Williams Lake has been cited for international recognition for his work in fiber optics and electrical engineering.
Kim Roberts, 59, who has lived in Ottawa since 1986, is the son of Anna Roberts of Grebe Drive, and the late Dr. John Roberts, a veterinary surgeon in Williams Lake. He will be presented with the prestigious 2019 John Tyndall award on March 7 in San Diego, California.
The award was established in 1987 by the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in memory of John Tyndal — who first guided light in a curved stream of water pouring from a barrel — to recognize pioneering and highly significant technical leadership in the field of fiber optics.
Roberts, who was born in Williams Lake in 1959, has over 160 U.S. patents to his credit.
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He graduated from Columneetza Secondary School in 1977 and attended UBC in Vancouver where he got his bachelor’s electrical engineering degree with a focus on honours mathematics. He graduated with his master’s degree in electrical engineering from UBC in the spring of 1984 and accepted a position with the communications firm Nortel in Edmonton where he learned about fiber optics.
Roberts remained with Nortel until the optical division was acquired by Ciena in 2010. He lives in Ottawa where he is Ciena’s Vice President of WaveLogic Science and travels the world lecturing and sharing advances in fiber optic engineering.
Over his 35-year career Roberts has pioneered a number of optical communications systems that are now the gold standard for high-capacity fiber-optic systems.
“Kim’s contributions have become the foundation of the fabric for how the world connects,” says Ciena’s Chief Technology Officer Steve Alexander. “They’ve been deployed by nearly every large network operator on the planet.”
Meanwhile Roberts’ boss Dino DiPerna, describes him as having one of the most brilliant minds he has ever encountered. At the same time he says Roberts is an unconventional thinker who can see beyond the limitations that confound others. “Many brilliant, experienced people can fall into that trap and miss a chance to change the game.”
Roberts, who grew up on the shore of Williams Lake at the end of South Lakeside Drive, says one of the earliest influences for his career choice was his math and physics teacher Reg Beck.
“Many of my teachers were outstanding. Reg also ran Columneetza’s amateur radio station. I would only show up to his math classes for exams. The rest of the time I spent in the metalwork shop. However, one needed to pay attention in physics.”
When he was a student Roberts built a pottery studio for his mother, who was instrumental in founding the Williams Lake Potters Guild. Anna still uses that shop today to create her unique hand-built bowls and plates.
Kim spends 10 to 15 weeks per year traveling the globe to give presentations about coherent fiber optic transmission systems. Since July 2018 he has been to South Korea, Vietnam, India, Australia, Italy, Poland, Austria, Holland, Israel and the United Kingdom, as well as to cities in the United States and Canada. The presentations are to the scientific community at conferences and to operators of large telecoms networks.
For holidays he likes to stay home and putter in his workshop where he builds unique furniture pieces.
When he is travelling Kim takes the time to explore, when he has a few hours to spare.
“I like to go to look at the architecture and find local food. When I have a weekend in Japan I try and go out into the countryside, soak in volcanic hot springs, and get great food.”
As a tall Caucasian with a noticeable bush of white facial hair, Roberts stands out in Asian countries.
“I was sitting on a stone wall beside West Lake in Hangzhou when two young ladies came up to me. They wanted to sit beside me and have their pictures taken with Santa Claus.”
He says one December in the mountains of Japan he came across a guy in a red suit and a fake white beard sitting in a sleigh going “Ho, Ho, Ho” with a Canadian accent.
READ MORE: Potter Anna Roberts hosts annual studio sale this week
“I tugged on my own beard and told him it was the real thing. Then the Canadian Santa beckoned me over and said he desperately needed a coffee.”
While the John Tyndall Award is a tremendous personal honour, Roberts is quick to give credit to his colleagues.
“It’s a great individual award, but what I do requires a team. We have a great team in Ottawa that designs all aspects of the fiber optics system. The achievement is due to what our team of 250 engineers has created in the past 15 years – five generations of coherent fiber systems.”
Roberts says what he really enjoys most is seeing the ideas he has been part of creating, become products that are useful to millions of people by carrying their internet traffic around the world.
In Roberts’ case the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. Both his children are engineers. His daughter Alison works on safe transportation of nuclear material at the Chalk River Nuclear research lab north of Ottawa, and son Ian, who recently completed his PhD in optical communication at Stanford, works for Ciena in Ottawa.
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