The Bit Player at Computer History Museum

Andrea Goldsmith is an American electrical engineer and the Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University. She is also the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton. She was previously the Stephen Harris Professor in the

School of Engineering Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education ( bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations tha ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, as well as a faculty affiliate at the Stanford Neurosciences Institute.Sarah Wishingrad
"Three Stanford professors elected to National Academy of Engineering,"
''

The Stanford Daily ''The Stanford Daily'' is the student-run, independent daily newspaper serving Stanford University. ''The Daily'' is distributed throughout campus and the surrounding community of Palo Alto, California, United States. It has published since the ...

'', March 6, 2017. Her interests are in the design, analysis and fundamental performance limits of wireless systems and networks, and in the application of communication theory and signal processing to neuroscience.Kate Chesley
"American Academy of Arts and Sciences elects 11 Stanford faculty members,"
Stanford News, April 12, 2017. She also co-founded and served as chief technology officer of Plume WiFi and Quantenna Communications. Since 2021, she has been a member of the

President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is a council, chartered (or re-chartered) in each administration with a broad mandate to advise the president of the United States on science and technology. The current PCAST w ...

(PCAST).

Early life and education

Goldsmith was raised in the

San Fernando Valley, California The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

.Kathleen J. Sullivan
"Wireless communications expert takes the helm of the Faculty Senate,"
Stanford News, October 22, 2009. Her father Werner Goldsmith was a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, and her mother Adrienne Goldsmith was an animator for cartoon shows including ''

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC te ...

''.Abra Cohen
"Talking with a wizard in the field of wireless,"
'' J Weekly'', March 7, 2014. Goldsmith earned her bachelor's degree in engineering math from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, in 1986, and her MS and PhD in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley in 1991 and 1994, respectively. In the years between obtaining her bachelor's and PhD, she spent four years as a systems engineer at a

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

defense communications startup.

Work and academic career

Goldsmith started her academic career at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

and was there for four years. She joined Stanford in 1999, becoming an associate professor in 2002 and a full professor in 2007. At Stanford, she has served as chair of the faculty senate, and on the school's task force on women and leadership. In 2006, she took a leave of absence from Stanford and co-founded Quantenna Communications, a company that produces silicon chipsets designed for high-speed, wireless high-definition video home networking. She served as chief technology officer of the startup until returning to Stanford in 2008. She was also a founder and CTO of Plume WiFi, which was founded in 2014 and develops WiFi technology. She joined Princeton in 2020 as Dean of Engineering and Applied Science at a pivotal time, where it is expected to grow its engineering faculty by 50%, build a new neighborhood with new buildings for all engineering departments and interdisciplinary institutes, and foster significantly more innovation, entrepreneurship, and partnerships with industry. As an inventor and consultant, she has secured 29 patents. She has authored and co-authored several books, including ''Wireless Communication'', ''MIMO Wireless Communications'' and ''Principles of Cognitive Radio''. She has launched and led several multi-university research projects, including

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

's ITMANET program, and she is a principal investigator in the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

Center on the Science of Information. In the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

, Goldsmith served on the board of governors for both the Information Theory and Communications societies. She has also been a distinguished lecturer for both societies, served as president of the IEEE Information Theory Society in 2009, founded and chaired the Student Committee of the IEEE Information Theory society, and chaired the Emerging Technology Committee of the

IEEE Communications Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

. She chairs the IEEE Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.Vicky Stein
"Andrea Goldsmith wins award for mentoring women in engineering,"
Stanford News, October 30, 2017. She won the 2017 Women in Communications Engineering Mentorship Award from the IEEE Communications Society for her efforts in encouraging women in the fields of technology and engineering. In 2017, she was elected to the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and also to the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

for contributions to adaptive and multiantenna wireless communications. Goldsmith won the 2020 Marconi Prize, generally recognized as the top prize in communications.

Awards

Gilbreth Lecture Award, 2002 * ''

Silicon Valley Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor New ...

'' Women of Influence Award, 2010 *

Edwin H. Armstrong Achievement Award, 2014 * Member,

, 2017–present * Member,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, 2017–present * Women in Communications Engineering (WICE) Mentorship Award, 2017 * ACM Athena Lecturer Award, 2018 *

Marconi Prize The Marconi Prize is an annual award recognizing achievements and advancements made in field of communications (radio, mobile, wireless, telecommunications, data communications, networks, and Internet). The prize is awarded by the Marconi Society ...

, 2020Marconi Prize 2020
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Publications

Books and book chapters

* ''Entropy, Mutual Information, and Capacity for Markov Channels with General Inputs'', T. Holliday, A. Goldsmith, P. Glynn,

Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It was among the presses officially ...

, 2002 * ''EE359 Wireless Communications'', A. Goldsmith, Stanford University Press, 2002 * ''Wireless Communications'', A. Goldsmith, Cambridge University Press, 2005 * ''MIMO Wireless Communications'', E. Biglieri,

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 2007 * ''Principles of Cognitive Radio'', A. Goldsmith, L. Greenstein, N. Mandayam, H.V. Poor, Cambridge University Press, 2012

Personal life

Goldsmith lives in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

, with her husband, scientist Arturo Salz, and their children.

External links

People of ACM

Google Scholar, Andrea Goldsmith

Andrea Goldsmith Profile at Stanford University

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldsmith, Andrea Living people American electrical engineers Stanford University faculty Local area networks Wireless networking American women computer scientists American computer scientists People from Menlo Park, California People from the San Fernando Valley UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni California Institute of Technology faculty Electrical engineering academics Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences American women engineers Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Stanford University Department of Electrical Engineering faculty Engineers from California 21st-century women engineers Year of birth missing (living people) American telecommunications engineers American women academics 21st-century American women