pb> I believe that AM and the Good Doctor may have been friends for a very long time, since they both worked at Bell Labs.

Based on a brief (perhaps 30 minutes) search, Dr. Geoff worked at Bell Labs in Holmdel, Murray Hill, and possibly Berkeley Heights.

Dr. Ajit worked (as far as I can tell by page xviii of this), in Holmdel.

His patents there begin around 1982-1984.

Geoff may have been at Texas Instruments then, his patents at TI run from 1978 onwards into the early eighties; his Bell Labs patents start in 1981 (Murray Hill), 1989 (Berkeley Heights), and Holmdel (1991-1994).

I haven't (yet) found a direct reference of them working on anything together (before POET, of course).

In closing, the lineage of these men and their generation of minds bred at Bell Labs simply cannot be overstated ... it's as hard to fully grasp as it is fundamentally important,to understand the defining magnitude and tremendous impact.

These guys think BIG.

Not Facebook big.

Not Snapchat, LinkedIn, or Twitter big.

Rather, "We invent the things the entire industry will depend on for generations."

That big.

GLTA,

R.

PS: Robert or David, does the modern (regular-issue, non-commemorative) £2 coin still have inscribed on its edge what I remember it does? ;-)