Pioneer of Wireless Communications, Andrew Viterbi, Named Newest HKN Eminent Member

Contact: Lisa Reyes
Phone: +1-312-559-3325
E-Mail: lreyes@iec.org

Chicago – January 18, 2006 – Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) presented the HKN Eminent Member award to Dr. Andrew Viterbi, president of Viterbi Group, yesterday at the 2006 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium in San Diego, California.

Eta Kappa Nu (HKN), the national honor society for electrical and computer engineering, awards the Eminent Member distinction as its highest membership classification. It is conferred by the HKN Board of Governors upon the few whose attainments and contributions to society through leadership in engineering have resulted in significant benefits to humankind.

Dr. Viterbi commented on his receipt of the award, "I am honored to be selected for inclusion among such a distinguished group of my professional peers. Interestingly, this is the fiftieth anniversary of my election to Eta Kappa Nu as a student at MIT and the three hundredth birthday of the eminent "founder" of our discipline, Benjamin Franklin."

Dr. Viterbi is a co-founder and retired vice chairman and chief technical officer of QUALCOMM Incorporated. He spent equal portions of his career in industry, having previously co-founded Linkabit Corporation, and in academia, as a professor in the Schools of Engineering and Applied Science, first at UCLA and then at UCSD, where he is now professor emeritus. He is currently president of the Viterbi Group, a technical advisory and investment company.

His principal research contribution, the Viterbi Algorithm, is used in most digital cellular phones and digital satellite receivers, as well as in such diverse fields as magnetic recording, voice recognition, and DNA sequence analysis. More recently, he concentrated his efforts on establishing CDMA as the multiple access technology of choice for cellular telephony and wireless data communication.

Dr. Viterbi has received numerous honors both in the United States and internationally. Among these are six honorary doctorates from universities in Canada, Israel, Italy, and the United States, as well as memberships in the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received the Marconi International Fellowship Award, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell and Claude Shannon Awards, the NEC C&C Award, the Eduard Rhein Foundation Award, the Christopher Columbus Medal, and the Franklin Medal.

He has also received an honorary title from the President of Italy, and he has served on the U.S. President's Information Technology Advisory Committee. Dr. Viterbi serves on boards of numerous non-profit institutions, including the University of Southern California, in which its school of engineering became the Viterbi School of Engineering after a generous endowment by Dr. and Mrs. Viterbi. He also serves on the California Council on Science and Technology, the MIT Visiting Committee for Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, the Burnham Institute, and the Scripps Research Institute.

For more information, please contact lreyes@iec.org at +1-312-559-3325 or visit www.hkn.org.

About the Eminent Member Award
"Eminent Member" is the highest membership classification of Eta Kappa Nu. Established in 1950, the Eminent Member Award is conferred by the Board of Governors upon those select few whose attainments and contributions to society through leadership in the fields of electrical and computer engineering have resulted in significant benefits to humankind. These attainments and contributions may be in the areas of corporate management, government, education, or professional society activities. To nominate an individual for this award, contact Kathy Ricker, HKN Administrative Director, at kathy@hkn.org.

About Eta Kappa Nu (HKN)
Eta Kappa Nu is a 100-year-old honor society for electrical and computer engineering students and professionals. With a history of more than 200,000 members and 200 university chapters, HKN recognizes excellence in academic accomplishments, leadership, outstanding character, and service. The International Engineering Consortium manages the headquarters function of Eta Kappa Nu. For more information, please visit www.hkn.org.