Dalma Novak

Dalma Novak is VP of Engineering at Octane Wireless where she develops high-performance RF-over-fiber technologies for commercial and defense wireless applications. She is also an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Novak has over 30 years of experience working in the optical and wireless communications fields. She has contributed several book chapters on the design of fiber-wireless communication systems and has more than 300 publications in these areas, including several book chapters and patents. Dr. Novak has extensive technical leadership and project management experience in both the industrial and academic sectors. Prior to co-founding Pharad in 2004, she spent 12 years as a Professor and Chair of Telecommunications in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Melbourne, Australia. From June 2001 – December 2003 she was a Technical Section Lead at the venture-backed Dorsál Networks, Inc. and later at Corvis Corporation where she led cross-disciplinary R&D teams developing hardware for long-haul transmission systems. In 2007 she was elected to the grade of IEEE Fellow for her contributions to enabling technologies for the implementation of fiber-radio systems. In 2018 she received the IEEE Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award. Dr. Novak is a member of the IEEE Board of Directors as Director of IEEE Division X for 2021– 2022. She received her Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (with First Class Honors) and Doctor of Philosophy from The University of Queensland, in 1987 and 1992, respectively.