After obtaining the Ph.D. degree, he joined Bell Communication Research as a Member of the Technical Staff, where he concentrated his efforts towards generating ultrafast high power optical pulses from semiconductor diode lasers, for applications in applied photonic networks. Some of his technical accomplishments were the development of the worlds fastest, most powerful modelocked semiconductor laser diode, the demonstration of an optically distributed clocking network for high speed digital switches and supercomputer applications, and the first observation of the optical nonlinearity induced by the cooling of highly excited electron-hole pairs in semiconductor optical amplifiers. While at Bellcore, Dr. Delfyett received numerous awards for his technical achievements in these areas, including the Bellcore Synergy Award and the Bellcore Award of Appreciation.

Dr. Delfyett joined the faculty at the The School of Optics and the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL) at the University of Central Florida in 1993, and currently holds the positions of University Trustee Chair Professor of Optics, ECE & Physics.

Dr. Delfyett is the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, and Associate Editor of IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, Fellow of IEEE/LEOS, and is a former member of the Board of Governors of IEEE-LEOS. Dr. Delfyett has received numerous awards including the National Science Foundations Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which is awarded to the Nations top 20 young scientists, the 1999 University Distinguished Researcher of the Year Award, the 2000 Black Engineer of the Year Award - Outstanding Alumnus Achievement, and the 2000 Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award. He has also received the University of Central Floridas 2001 Pegasus Professor Award which is the highest honor awarded by the University. Dr. Delfyett has published over 275 articles in refereed journals and conference proceedings, has been awarded 12 United States Patents.