Julie Fouquet

Fouquet was born in Palo Alto, California.^[1] She majored in physics at Harvard University (Radcliffe College), advised by Edward Mills Purcell.^[2] At Harvard, she served as the undergraduate representative on the university's Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, but resigned in 1978 in protest of its makeup and behavior.^[3] She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1980,^[2][4] and earned a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University in 1986,^[2][5] with the dissertation Recombination Dynamics in Quantum Well Semiconductor Structures supervised by laser scientist Anthony E. Siegman.^[6]

She began working for HP Labs in 1985,^[1] and later worked for the HP spin-off company Agilent Technologies.^[2] There, she developed all-optical switches based on reflection of light from bubbles in a fluid, generated using the same technology used for inkjet printers.^[2][7] In 2004, she was named a Fellow of the IEEE, "for contributions to optical switch and light-emitting device technologies".^[8] Parts of Agilent spun off again into Avago Technologies in 2005, and Fouquet came to work for Avago as a senior principal research scientist.^[5]

In 2015, she founded 3newable LLC, a company focused on developing renewable energy from ocean waves.^[9]