Don Boroson, group leader of the Optical Communications Technology Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, has been named the recipient of a Lincoln Laboratory Technical Excellence Award. The award recognizes “exceptional, sustained individual technical excellence” in a laboratory mission area.

Boroson is the lead engineer on GeoLITE, the world’s first successful space-based laser communication system, and lead system engineer on the Mars Laser Communication Demonstration. He was cited “for his contributions to the field of modulation and coding techniques as applied to optical communication systems. [His] efforts have transformed this field from one of mainly theoretical interest to one of broad national impact.”

Boroson earned his B.S.E. in electrical engineering from Princeton in 1973 and received his Ph.D. from the University in 1977.