Orange County Register

From UCI to Silicon Valley to Washington, D.C., the world of innovation is an intertwined world.

That’s why U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (right) once teamed up with UCI physics Prof. Roger McWilliams (left). It’s also why McWilliams keeps crossing the path of tech entrepreneur Milton Chang.

McWilliams told both stories at a lecture last week on lasers and plasma physics.

An expert in plasma physics and lasers, McWilliams analyzed the technology behind a laser gyroscope that Litton Industries of Woodland Hills patented in 1979. He did that work for Litton’s team of lawyers, including Roberts, more than a decade before Roberts was named to the Supreme Court. Roberts was a pleasant and competent man, McWilliams recalls.

The work, by the way, helped Litton win a $1.2 billion patent-infringement judgment against Honeywell in 1993.

McWilliams’s links to Chang are more complex, even though the two men have never met. In fact, McWilliams only recently realized that his research has led him into Chang’s domains three times.

1. In his laboratory, McWilliams uses lasers from Irvine-based Newport Corp., which Chang took public in 1971.

2. McWilliams worked on a small diode laser for San Jose-based New Focus Inc., which was founded by Chang.

3. Separately, McWilliams worked on a laser for SDL Inc., also of San Jose. SDL was purchased in 2000 by fiber-optic equipment maker JDS Uniphase, a company that got its start with money from Chang.

The moral of the story, says McWilliams: Invest in Milton Chang’s companies.