A Professor, retired from his official duties and a native of India – Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj will be the recipient of the prestigious 2014 Marconi Society Prize. The man who devised the idea of using multiple antennas at both the transmitting and receiving stations – which is at the heart of the current high speed WiFi and 4G mobile systems – revolutionized high speed wireless delivery of multimedia services for billions of people.
Started as a brilliant top ranking student, Arogyaswami finished high school at 15 and joined the Indian Navy where his training focused on practical skills for maintaining weapons systems. However, Paul, he is now called as taught himself subjects like information theory and signal processing. He pursued his work on work on non-linear estimation theory that finally led to his Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi).
Realizing the scientist’s potential, the Navy in 1977 assigned him to lead an ambitious project to develop advanced sonars. Paul along with his team developed an excellent sonar system (APSOH) that was inducted into fleet service in 1983.
“Paulraj’s contributions to wireless technology, and the resulting benefit to mankind, are indisputable. Every WiFi router and 4G phone today uses MIMO technology pioneered by him,” says Vint Cerf, Vice Chairman of the Marconi Society.
The award given annually by Marconi Society’s aims to enhance the spirit of Guglielmo Marconi – scientist, engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur whose contributions to communications and information have been immense and inspires others to take concrete steps in the same direction for the social, cultural and economic improvement of all humanity.
The Society, celebrates its 50th year in 2014 and the occasion therefore is a special one. The awardee is entitled to receive an amount $100,000 as Marconi Prize for his contributions, recognized by the society as a whole.
The Marconi Society
