David Bishop was born on October 6, 1951 in Montgomery, Alabama. He graduated from Vicenza American High School in Vicenza, Italy in 1969. In 1973 he graduated Magna Cum Laude and with honors from Syracuse University with a B.S. in Physics. In 1977 he received an M.S. in Physics from Cornell University and in 1978 a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell. In 1978 he became a postdoctoral member of staff at AT&T-Bell Laboratories and in 1979 was made a Member of the Technical Staff. In 1988 he was made a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, and later that same year was promoted to Department Head, Bell Laboratories. He is a Bell Laboratories Fellow and is currently the Optical Research VP, ONG and VP, Communications Subsystems Research Laboratory, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies and is responsible for leading the MEMS development effort at Lucent Technologies.