Gabriel Walter hails from Sarawak, Malaysia and is part of the ethnic minority group of Kelabit. He received his B.S, M.S, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (UIUC), Urbana, IL, in 1998, 2001, and 2003, respectively. He spent a total of 17 years in Illinois and Wisconsin, USA before permanently returning to Malaysia in 2013.
He is currently, the Group CEO and major shareholder of Quantum Electro Opto Systems (QEOS) Sdn. Bhd and he is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
QEOS is a technology company which he co-founded in 2008 with Prof. Nick Holonyak Jr, the inventor of the Light Emitting Diode (LED) and Prof. Milton Feng. QEOS developed a new innovative technology for the design and high-volume production of high-speed, low-cost, and energy-efficient optical solutions, wireless and wireline technology.
This is enabled by utilizing breakthrough QEOS Tilted Charge Dynamics™ (TCD) core technology for a new high-speed LED. In this revolutionary innovation the entire light emitting module is fully integrated in a single chip compared to current optical solutions, and the impact in design and production is substantial. The market need for lower power-per-gigabit increases as bandwidths get faster and data usage grows exponentially. QEOS technology will enable the digital ecosystem to keep pace.
From 2000-2003, he co-developed the quantum-dot-coupled-to-quantum-well lasers to demonstrate the first room temperature operation of single quantum dot layer laser at both the visible (600 to 670 nm) and infrared wavelengths (960 to 1100 nm).
In 2004, he co-invented the world’s first transistor laser making possible, new opportunities in high-speed optoelectronics and integrated circuits. In 2006 until 2009, Dr. Walter Gabriel who served as Research Scientist in Hyper Nanotechnology Uniform System (HUNT) DARPA Center, UIUC with several other scientists who invented several patents used for Diode Laser with emphasis on 980 and 1550 nm emission for communications applications.
From 2004 to 2008, Dr. Gabriel Walter also worked as a Senior Research Engineer with Trace Photonics, Inc (USA) where he developed radioisotope power sources. Together, they are the first to demonstrate stable energy conversion efficiencies in excess of 20%. Since 2010, Dr. Gabriel Walter is also appointed as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Electrical Engineering department. From 2003 to 2009, he was also a Senior Research Scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, where he served an important role in terms of research, which included the light emitting and sensing III-V.
His academic research interest includes III-V light emitters, sensors and efficient, high bandwidth communications systems. In 2008, Dr. Walter with others demonstrated 7 GHz operation of a Light Emitting Diode (LED), breaking 40 years of scientific norm that efficient LEDs for operations larger than 1 GHz was not feasible. This research was funded by an agency under the US Department of Defense (DARPA) to develop new technologies for use in the US military. His work has resulted in more than 50 peer-reviewed journal papers, 14 conference papers and more that 80 patents awarded and pending.