The Wireless Telecommunications Symposium Committee named Theodore (Ted) S. Rappaport, the David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, as the outstanding educator of the year and honored him with the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Wireless Communications.

Rappaport—who is also a professor of computer science at the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematics and a professor of radiology at the NYU School of Medicine—heads NYU WIRELESS, the first university center to combine wireless engineering, computing, and medical applications research. It is home to pioneering research with the millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum, including propagation measurements, radio channel modeling, system simulation, and antenna technology that are the foundation for the next, super-fast generation of mobile technology, 5G.

The awards recognize Rappaport’s many accomplishments as a teacher and researcher, both at NYU and elsewhere.  Earlier in his career, he founded two of the world’s largest academic wireless research centers: the Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) at the University of Texas at Austin and the Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group (MPRG), now known as Wireless@Virginia Tech. He launched NYU WIRELESS in 2012, and it has since grown to include more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 20 faculty researchers.

Rappaport has more than 100 U.S. or international patents issued or pending and has authored, co-authored, and co-edited more than 200 papers and 20 books in the wireless field. Among his other honors are the Marconi Young Scientist Award (1990), a National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellowship (1992), the Sarnoff Citation from the Radio Club of America (2000), the Stuart F. Meyer Award from the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (2005), and the Institution of Engineering and Technology Sir Monty Finniston Medal (2011) “for his outstanding academic and industrial contributions over almost three decades in the field of wireless communication.” 

“Ted Rappaport has been instrumental in making NYU a recognized leader in the field of wireless communication,” said Katepalli Sreenivasan, president and dean of the NYU School of Engineering. “It is deeply gratifying to see him honored at the 2015 Wireless Telecommunications Symposium and to have his status as one of the country’s foremost wireless researchers and educators reaffirmed by the IEEE Communications Society.”

The 2015 Wireless Telecommunications Symposium was held in New York City.  Technical co-sponsor for the annual event was the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Communications Society.

For more information, visit http://nyuwireless.com or http://engineering.nyu.edu.