2016 IEEE Medal Winners: Forney, Padovani, El Gamal, and Scharf
Four members of the IEEE Information Theory Society have been named as winners of the IEEE's most prestigious winners. The awards are IEEE Medal of Honor for G. David Forney, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal for Roberto Padovani, the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal for Abbas El Gamal, and the IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal for Louis L. Scharf.
Nov 25, 2015

IEEE Medal of Honor: G. David Forney, Jr.

The IEEE Medal of Honor is awarded for an exceptional contribution or an extraordinary career in IEEE fields of interest, sponsored by the IEEE Foundation, to  G. David Forney, Jr. (Adjunct Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) "for pioneering contributions to the theory of error- correcting codes and the development of reliable high-speed data communications."  

Professor Forney is the fifth Shannon Award winner to receive this honor, after Claude Shannon, Robert Gallager, Andrew J. Viterbi, and Tom Kailath.

IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal: Roberto Padovani

The IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal is awarded for  exceptional contributions to the advancement of communications sciences and engineering, sponsored by Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, to Roberto Padovani ( Executive Vice President and Fellow, Qualcomm  Technologies) "f or innovations enabling efficient, wideband, wireless access to the Internet, that is central to all third-generation cellular networks.” 

IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal: Abbas El Gamal

The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal is awarded  for exceptional contributions to information sciences, systems, and technology, sponsored by Qualcomm, Inc., to Abbas El Gamal ( Professor and Department Chair, Department of Electrical  Engineering, Stanford University) "f or contributions to network multi-user information theory and for wide ranging impact on programmable circuit architectures."

Professor El Gamal joins fellow  Shannon Award  winners Irving S. Reed, Elwyn R. Berlekamp, Jorma J. Rissanen, Jacob Ziv, Thomas M. Cover, Solomon Golomb, Peter Elias, Jack K. Wolf, Neil J.A. Sloane, Sergio Verdú, Toby Berger, Robert Calderbank, and Imre Csiszár in receiving this honor.

IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal: Louis Scharf

The IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal is awarded for  outstanding achievements in signal processing, sponsored by Texas Instruments, Inc., to  Louis L. Scharf ( Professor, Department of  Electrical and Computer Engineering,  Colorado State University ) "f or pioneering and sustained contributions to statistical signal processing and its practice.” 


About IEEE

The IEEE Medals are the highest awards that are presented by IEEE. IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association, is dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Learn more about IEEE Awards at www.ieee.org/awards .