Julien Poirrier was born in Verdun, France in 1977. He receives his diplôme d'ingénieur from SUPELEC, France in 1999, his MSc in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, in 2000 and his PhD from Université de Rennes in 2007.

From 1999 to 2000, he worked as a graduate research assistant at the lightwave department of AT&T Research Labs on the electronic mitigation of Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD). In 2000, he joined Alcatel R&I, Stuttgart, Germany to investigate on the optical compensation of PMD. In 2002, he joined Marconi ONDATA in Backnang, Germany and contributed to the design of transparent and long haul transmission systems. In 2004, he joined Orange Labs, Lannion, France where he concentrated on the design and engineering of WDM systems for the access, metro and long haul networks. Since 2008, he is working for Huawei Technologies Co.,Ltd on the definition of future transmission networks.
Mr Poirrier receives the 2000 Paul E. Torgersen Research Excellence award and serves as a reviewer for JLT.