Grundlagenpreis - Basic Research Award 2002
Prof. Dr. Robert G. Gallager
Curriculum Vitae von Prof. Dr. Robert G. Gallager
| 29.5.1931 | Geboren in Glenolden, Pennsylvania, USA. |
| 1953 | Bachelor of Science in Elektrotechnik. |
| 1953-54 | Ingenieur bei den Bell Telephone Laboratories. |
| 1954-56 | U.S.Army. |
| 1957 | Senior Member des Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). |
| 1960 | Promotion (ScD) am MIT. |
| 1960-64 | Assistant Professor für Elektrotechnik am MIT. |
| 1964-67 | Associate Professor für Elektrotechnik am MIT. |
| 1967-76 | Professor für Elektrotechnik am MIT. |
| 1971-72 | Geschäftsführender Vizepräsident für Forschung der Codex Corporation. |
| 1976-2001 | Fujitsu Professor für Elektrotechnik am MIT. |
| 1986-99 | Co-Direktor des Laboratoriums für Informations- und Entscheidungssysteme. (Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, LIDS) |
| 2001 | Professor Emeritus des MIT. |
| Auszeichnungen und Ehrungen | |
| 1966 | IEEE Baker Prize Paper Award. |
| 1968 | Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). |
| 1973 | Gold Medal Award der Moore School, University of Pennsylvania. |
| 1977-78 | Guggenheim Fellowship. |
| 1979 | Mitglied der U.S. National Academy of Engineering. |
| 1983 | Shannon Award der IEEE Information Society. |
| 1984 | IEEE Centennial Medal. |
| 1990 | IEEE Medal of Honor. |
| 1992 | Mitglied der U.S. National Academy of Sciences. |
| 1993 | a) MIT Graduate Student Council Teaching Award. |
| b) Prize Paper Award (gemeinsam mit Parekh) der Tagung IEEE INFOCOM. | |
| c) William Bennet Prize Paper Award (gemeinsam mit Parekh). | |
| 1998 | Zwei Golden Jubilee Paper Awards der IEEE Information Theory Society. |
| 1999 | a) Harvey Prize in Science and Technology des Technion, Israel. |
| b) Fellow der American Academy of Arts and Sciences. | |
| 2000 | Fellow des International Engineering Consortium (IEC). |
Contributions to Information Theory and Coding Theory
Professor Gallager has made basic contributions to the foundations of the Information age. As a student of C.E. Shannon he continued information theory in the spirit of its founder. Information theory provides the theoretical foundations to the essentials of the information age: data trans-mission, compression of text, voice, audio, images and video. Gallager’s dissertation already has introduced in 1962 error correcting codes with "Low Density Parity Checks Codes". He was well ahead of his time, because only 33 years later it was noticed in connection with the so-called turbo codes that Gallager’s codes can achieve the absolute limits of information transmission by a few percent. The practical implication of this work of Gallager is that one can perform radio trans-mission such as in mobile networks with the lowest possible power. This is of utmost importance in the current discussion about electronic radiation. These Gallager codes are further used in deep spce transmission, in satellite communications and for high density magnetic recording.
The second important achievement of Professor Gallager is in the field of computer networks. These networks such as the Internet, satellite networks and optical fiber networks are the backbone nerve system of our society Professor Gallager in a wealth of articles and books has put these methods on the solid basis of mathematical statistics and information theory. His work for instance shows how to perform optimal routing in such networks or how to serve many users on such links.
Last but not least, Professor Gallager is an excellent university teacher who has introduced
generations of students, engineers and researchers in the fascinating field of information theory,
coding theory and computer networks.
| Prof. Dr. Joachim Hagenauer,
Technical University Munich |