Dr. Tingye Li (simplified Chinese: 厉鼎毅; July 7, 1931 – December 27, 2012) was a world-renowned scientist in the fields of microwaves, lasers and optical communications. His innovational work at AT&T, which pioneered the research and application of lightwave communication, has had a far-reaching impact on information technology for over four decades.

He played crucial roal in laser's development and shaped the lightwave network infrastructure we know today. It was his outstanding leadership and great contribution that had made this conference, ACP (previously called APOC), a continuously successful one.