Shuang Deng, Ph.D. An entrepreneur and an inspiring man Dr. Shuang Deng, a longtime resident of Lexington, MA, and distinguished New England entrepreneur, has passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family. He passed during the early morning hours of Sunday, January 8th, 2012, Beijing time, at Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai, China. Leaving us at the age of 48, he fought a courageous four year battle against cancer. Dr. Deng was born in Qingdao, China, on March 2, 1963. He graduated in the class of 1984 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology where he majored in Computer Engineering. He later earned his master’s degree from the Beijing Institute of Control Engineering of the China Academy of Space Technology and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Alberta, Canada. Dr. Deng was far too modest a man to shine a light over his incredible professional accomplishments. To share, his remarkable intellect allowed him to make significant contributions to the telecommunications industry during the past two decades. He founded and co-founded several high-tech companies, of which the most successful was Aptics Communications. As a founding member of Aptis, he led the product strategy and market positioning of the best-in-class CVX family. Aptis was acquired by Nortel in less than a year after its founding. He stayed with Nortel after the acquisition to help grow the business to over $300M annual revenue and 20% market share within twenty-four months, and win virtually all major carries. He also co-founded Tiburon Networks and served as its vice president of product marketing and management. During the early- to mid- 1990s, Dr. Deng was with GTE Laboratories, working on service planning, traffic and network engineering for data access services, where he was instrumental in conceiving the original idea, and also in the design and development of the ADSL data services. He served as the chair of the Network Architecture Committee at the ADSL Forum from 1995 to 1997. Before GTE, he worked at Hewlett-Packard as a software architect of the industry’s first ATM broadband tester. In 2008, Dr. Deng returned to China to head Alcatel-Lucent R&D China operations. He instilled constructive team culture that fostered effective cooperation, created product strategies that helped open new markets and strategically positioned the company in the telecommunications industry. In 2009, he was recognized by the first Thousand Talents Program, a Chinese government program that recruits global experts. He achieved all these while fighting battles against cancer. He held eleven patents for data and voice network technologies, and published extensively from peer-reviewed academic papers to whitepapers and briefings in trade magazines. He also spoke and chaired at various telecommunications conferences. Dr. Deng was an inspiring man loved by family, friends, and colleagues. He put heart and mind into everything he did in both his personal and professional lives. More importantly, he took actions to help make things happen. Prior to his illness, he served as a board member of Newton Chinese Language School. While in Shanghai, he was actively involved in the practice of co-op organic farming to promote awareness of healthy eating. He loved cooking for family and friends. His mastery of the art of bread making will be fondly remembered. He was adventurous and enjoyed travel and road trips with family and friends. Particularly he found great satisfaction taking his family to explore new cultures during times between battles against cancer. A rational, even tempered decision maker, Dr. Deng will be always remembered as a source of sound advice and eternally selfless guidance. Above all, he will be remembered for his strength. He selflessly refused to complain or show weakness during his four year struggle with cancer, all to protect his friends and family from pain. His incredible display of bravery was an inspiration to all who heard his story. Dr. Deng never gave up. Even in his last hours he showed an astonishing will to live, asking to be taken to the ICU to strive for a little more time among the living. Dr. Deng appreciated life in a profound way. His passionate speech at the Relay for Life fundraising event for the American Cancer Society in Shanghai American School was deeply touching and inspirational. He is survived by his loving wife, Yian Leng Chang; and their children, Julia and Kevin. He is also survived by his mother Aizhen An and his brother Wei Deng of Qingdao, China.