Dr. Don M. Boroson is a Laboratory Fellow in the Communication Systems Division of MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He has had a long career there with a focus, since the mid-1980s, on space-based laser communications systems. He has experience in many facets of this exciting field, from mathematical analyses of phenomena and system performance, to invention of novel subsystems, to devising complete system architectures. He has also led teams developing a wide range of relevant technologies, as well as designing, building, and fielding end-to-end systems.
Dr. Boroson was Lincoln’s lead lasercom engineer for the GeoLITE program, which, in 2001, became the world’s first successful space-based, high-rate lasercom system. He served as the lead system engineer on NASA’s Mars Laser Communications Demonstration program, which ended up not flying because of the 2005 cancellation of the larger satellite it was to be carried on, but which devised many concepts and architectures that are now considered standard for Deep Space lasercom systems.
He was then Principal Investigator and Lincoln Program Manager for NASA’s Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration which, in 2013, became the world’s first Moon-to-Earth lasercom system, and which also set a number of other records including being the first truly error-free space-to-ground laser communication system, to being the highest rate duplex Moon-to-Earth communication system of any sort, to being the world’s longest lasercom system to date.
Dr. Boroson holds undergraduate and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Princeton University.