David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor, New York University (NYU)
Theodore S. Rappaport (S’83–M’84–SM’91–F’98) is currently the David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor with New York University (NYU) and holds faculty appointments in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, the Courant Computer Science Department, and the NYU Langone School of Medicine. He is also the Founder and the Director of NYU WIRELESS, a multidisciplinary research center focused on the future of wireless communications and applications. His research has led the way for modern wireless communication systems. In 1987, his Ph.D. at Purdue University provided fundamental knowledge of indoor wireless channels used to create the first Wi-Fi standard (IEEE 802.11), and he conducted fundamental work that led to the first US Digital cellphone standards, TDMA IS-54/IS-136, and CDMA IS-95. He and his students engineered the world’s first public Wi-Fi hotspots, and more recently, his work proved the viability of millimeter waves for mobile communications, and the global wireless industry adopted his vision for 5th generation (5G) cellphone networks. He founded three academic wireless research centers at Virginia Tech, The University of Texas, and NYU that have produced thousands of engineers and educators, since 1990, and he has coauthored over 300 papers and twenty books, including the most cited books on wireless communications, adaptive antennas, wireless simulation, and millimeter-wave communications. He co-founded two wireless companies, TSR Technologies and Wireless Valley Communication, which were sold to publicly traded companies, and he has advised many others. He co-founded the Virginia Tech Symposium on Wireless Communications in 1991, the Texas Wireless Summit in 2003, and the Brooklyn 5G Summit (B5GS) in 2014. He has more than 100 patents, serves on the Technological Advisory Council of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is a Fellow of the Radio Club of America and the National Academy of Inventors, a life member of the American Radio Relay League, a licensed professional engineer in Texas and Virginia, and an amateur radio operator (N9NB). He has received ASEE’s Terman Award, The Sir Monty Finniston Medal from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society’s James R. Evans Avant Garde and Stu Meyer Awards, the IEEE Education Society William E. Sayle Award for achievement in education, the IEEE Communications Society Armstrong Award, and the Armstrong Medal from the Radio Club of America.