New Jersey native Gerald R. Ash, who was born in Paterson and lived for many years in West Long Branch, started working for AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1976 as a member of the technical staff. Since 1998, he has been a district manager of strategic standards at the AT&T Labs, Middletown.

Ash has made unique contributions to the telecommunications industry by inventing three dynamic routing schemes, which were patented from 1982 to 1995. His schemes, based on algorithms which he created with his colleagues, reroute calls to avoid delays due to network congestion during peak times such as holidays or natural disasters.

Dynamic Nonhierarchical Routing (DNHR), the first of his routing schemes, completes calls by accessing the available network bandwidth without the limitation of hierarchical routing rules. The routing changes with the time of day to optimize bandwidth utilization and to maximize completion rate. Reduced costs and better service have resulted.

Real-time Network Routing (RTNR) provides real-time adaptation of network routing to changes in traffic. This ultimately improves network reliability and robustness while minimizing capital investment.

End-to-End Class-of-Service (ECOS) facilitated the introduction of key service protections and premium service quality in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Ash, who was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in 1993, received his bachelor's degree from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and his master's and doctoral degrees from California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, all in electrical engineering.