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Andrew J. Viterbi[1] | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Andrea Giacomo Viterbi (1935-03-09)March 9, 1935 (age 90) Bergamo, Italy |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS,MS) University of Southern California (PhD) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Electrical |
| Institutions | University of Southern California Board of Trustees The Scripps Research Institute Board of Trustees,Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute |
| Employer(s) | Professor: UC Los Angeles UC San Diego Founder/Co-founder: Linkabit Corporation Qualcomm Inc. The Viterbi Group |
| Projects | Viterbi algorithm |
| Significant advance | Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard for cell phone networks |
| Awards | IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (1984) Marconi Prize (1990) Claude E. Shannon Award (1991) Wireless Hall of Fame (2000) National Medal of Science (2007) IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal (2007) Millennium Technology Prize (2008) IEEE Medal of Honor (2010) John Fritz Medal (2011) |
Andrew James Viterbi (bornAndrea Giacomo Viterbi, March 9, 1935) is an electrical engineer and businessman who co-foundedQualcomm Inc. and invented theViterbi algorithm. He is the Presidential Chair Professor ofElectrical Engineering at the University of Southern California'sViterbi School of Engineering, which was named in his honor in 2004 in recognition of his $52 million gift.
Viterbi was born to anItalian Jewish family[2] inBergamo, Italy and emigrated with them to the United States two years before World War II. His original name was Andrea, but when he was naturalized in the US, his parentsanglicized it to Andrew.[citation needed]
Viterbi attended theBoston Latin School, and then enteredMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1952, studying electrical engineering. He received bothBS andMS inelectrical engineering in 1957 from MIT. He was elected to membership in the honor societyEta Kappa Nu in 1956 through the MIT chapter.
He worked atRaytheon and later atJet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) inPasadena, California, where he started working ontelemetry foruncrewed space missions, also helping to develop thephase-locked loop. Simultaneously, he was carrying outPhD studies at theUniversity of Southern California, where he graduated in 1963 indigital communications.[3]
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After receiving his PhD, he applied successfully for an academic position atUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Viterbi was later a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA andUniversity of California, San Diego (UCSD). In 1967 he proposed theViterbi algorithm to decode convolutionally encoded data. It is still used widely in cellular phones forerror correcting codes, as well as forspeech recognition,DNA analysis, and many other applications ofHidden Markov models. On advice of a lawyer, Viterbi did not patent the algorithm.[4]Viterbi also helped to develop theCode Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard forcell phone networks.
Viterbi was the cofounder ofLinkabit Corporation, withIrwin M. Jacobs in 1968, a smalltelecommunications contractor. He was also the co-founder ofQualcomm Inc. with Jacobs in 1985. As of 2003[update], he is the president of the venture capital companyThe Viterbi Group. He continues to be involved inwireless communications technology companies as a strategic advisor toIngenu's board of directors.[5]
Virterbi was elected a member of theNational Academy of Engineering in 1978.
In 1998 he was one of the few receiving a Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation from theIEEE Information Theory Society. Viterbi earned it for"the invention of theViterbi algorithm".[6] He was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame, in 2000, for his dedication to the cellular industry.[7] In 2002, Viterbi dedicated the Andrew Viterbi '52 Computer Center at his alma mater, Boston Latin School. On March 2, 2004, theUniversity of Southern California School of Engineering was renamed theViterbi School of Engineering in his honor, following his $52 million donation to the school.[8] He is a member of the USC board of trustees.[9]
He is also on the Board of Trustees atThe Scripps Research Institute.
He is also founding member ofISSNAF (The Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation).
In 2005, he was awarded theBenjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering.
In 2006, he was made an Eminent Member ofEta Kappa Nu.
Viterbi andIrwin M. Jacobs received the 2007IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award, for "fundamental contributions, innovation, and leadership that enabled the growth of wireless telecommunications".[10]
In 2008, he was named aMillennium Technology Prize finalist for the invention of theViterbi algorithm. At the award ceremony inFinland on June 11, 2008, he was awarded a prize ofEUR 115,000 and the prize trophy "Peak" as a 2008 Millennium Technology Laureate.[11][12]
In September 2008, he was awarded theNational Medal of Science for developing "the 'Viterbi algorithm', and for his contributions toCode Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless technology that transformed the theory and practice of digital communications".
In 2010, he received theIEEE Medal of Honor and in the same year he also received theIIC Lifetime Achievement Award by theItalian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. In 2011, he received theJohn Fritz Medal from theAmerican Association of Engineering Societies.[13]
In 2013, Viterbi was inducted into theNational Inventors Hall of Fame.
In 2017, Viterbi, along with Irwin Jacobs, received theIEEE Milestone Award for their CDMA and spread spectrum development that drives the mobile industry.[14]
A. Viterbi analytically showed that for the first-order PLL model (filterless model) the three main ranges (hold-in, pull-in, lock-in ranges) coincide.[15]: 4–5 [16] Various conjectures (e.g.,Egan's conjecture on the pull-in range of type II APLL) and estimates of the ranges of higher-order PLL models appeared based on this result, which led to the problem of determining the regions of the physical parameters of the PLL (parameters of the phase detector, filter, and voltage-controlled oscillator) where the ranges coincide (Viterbi's problem on the coincidence of PLL ranges[17]). In the framework of mathematicalcontrol theory, this result is a development of the ideas of the possibility of determining the global behavior of a nonlinear system via linear analysis and various well-known conjectures on global stability (Kalman's conjecture and others) for acylindrical phase space.
Viterbi was married to Erna Finci (1934–2015),[18] who was a Jewish refugee fromSarajevo in the former Yugoslavia.[19] Erna was a Holocaust survivor. In 1941, during World War II, the Finci family fled German-occupied Yugoslavia for the Italian-occupied zone from which they were deported and interned in the Parma region of Italy. In 1943, when the Nazis occupied Italy, the family was saved from deportation to extermination camps by the people ofGramignazzo di Sissa, the village where they had been interned; they were cared for by the local Ponghellini family, who hid them in their vineyard when German forces advanced into Italy. Other Italians helped them escape to Switzerland, walking across the Alps, where they waited out the war.
They had three children, Alan Viterbi, Audrey Viterbi,[19] and Alexander Viterbi (who died in 2011 at age 40).[20] Alan served on the inauguralWest Hollywood city council in 1984 when the city was incorporated, and served as the city's mayor in 1988.[21] Audrey served as an assistant professor atUC Irvine.[22]
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | John Fritz Medal 2011 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | IEEE Medal of Honor 2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | National Medal of Science 2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by (First) | IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal 2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Claude E. Shannon Award 1991 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Marconi Prize 1990 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal 1984 | Succeeded by |
