Donnell Walton is director of the Corning Technology Center in Silicon Valley. In this role, he leads research and business development efforts to match Corning's existing and emerging capabilities and opportunities in the western United States, in particular, the Silicon Valley region of California.

Walton joined Corning in 1999 as a senior research scientist in science and technology, where he performed and led research in optical fiber amplifiers and lasers. In 2004, Walton led Corning’s research and development efforts to a world leadership position in high-power fiber lasers. In 2006, he managed the Silicon on Glass platform expansion project, which demonstrated non-display applications of SiOG including imagers and photovoltaics. In 2008, Walton joined the Corning Gorilla® Glass team as a senior applications engineer, where he extended the Gorilla Glass value proposition to form factors larger than handheld devices. In 2010, Walton was appointed manager of worldwide applications engineering for Gorilla Glass.

Prior to joining Corning, Walton was a physics professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he won the National Science Foundation’s Young Investigator Award.

Walton earned a doctorate in applied physics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor after graduating summa cum laude with bachelor’s degrees in physics and electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and he completed the Stanford Executive Program at the Graduate School of Business. He serves on the board of the National Society of Black Physicists, the research advisory board of the IBM-HBCU Quantum Center and the corporate affiliate boards at the Universities of California in Irvine, Santa Barbara, and San Diego.