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Professor John M. Wozencraft wins IEEE Alexander Graham
Bell Medal
For Immediate Release
FRIDAY, 10 February 2006
Contact: William Smith, Assistant
Director for Finance and Sponsor
Relations
Phone: +1.617.253.5621
Email: whs@mit.edu
CAMBRIDGE, MA. 02.10.2006
The Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announces
that John M. Wozencraft, Professor of Electrical Engineering
emeritus, is the 2006 recipient of the Alexander Graham
Bell Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE). The Medal is one of the most prestigious
awards of the IEEE, and recognizes Professor Wozencraft
for his pioneering work in the development of sequential
decoding and the signal space approach to digital communication.
In 1957, Professor Wozencraft invented sequential
decoding, providing the first practical technique for
the reception of convolutional error-correcting codes
and, thus, spurring the use of error correction in
digital communications. In 1965, Professor Wozencraft,
together with his then-RLE colleague Professor Irwin
Jacobs, authored the text, "Principles of Communication
Engineering." This landmark publication, which
was reprinted in 1990, has educated generations of
students and researchers throughout the world in the
fundamentals of digital communications. Its geometric
view of signal constellations and decision rules still
remains at the foundation of all digital communication
analyses.
Jeffrey H.
Shapiro, RLE Director and Julius A. Stratton
Professor of Electrical Engineering, commented that, "Honoring
John Wozencraft for his research and for his educational
contributions is long overdue. Like so many others,
my introduction to communication theory came from the
Wozencraft and Jacobs text, a book that is a model
of clarity and which I still keep proudly on my bookshelf."
The IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal was established
by the IEEE Board of Directors in 1976 to commemorate
the centennial of the telephone's invention and to
provide recognition for outstanding contributions to
telecommunications. The Medal is sponsored by Lucent
Technologies.
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