Arogyaswami J. Paulraj (born 14 April 1944) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

electrical engineer, academic. He is a Professor Emeritus in the Dept. of Elect. Engg. at Stanford University.

Early life

Paulraj was born in

Pollachi Pollachi is a town and a taluk headquarters in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu state, India. Located about to the south of Coimbatore, it is the second largest town in the district after Coimbatore. Pollachi is a popular Marketplace for jag ...

near Coimbatore,

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

in 1944, one of six children of Sinappan Arogyaswami and his wife Rose. He attended Montfort Boys' High School in Yercaud, Tamil Nad

He joined the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates si ...

at age 15 through the National Defense Academy, Khadakvasla and served the Indian Navy for 26 years. Paulraj received a B.E. in electrical engineering from the Naval College of Engineering, Lonavala, India, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India Career in India Paulraj's contributions in India came whilst serving in the Indian Navy. In 1972, he developed new electronics for a British origin Sonar 170B. The technology was widely deployed in the Indian fleet. During 1977- 83, Paulraj led the development of a large surface ship sonar APSOH. This became the fleet sonar for the Indian Navy and its variants are still widely deployed. APSOH was a landmark achievement in Indian Electronics. Later, Paulraj founded three national-level research centers in India: the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Defense R&D Organization, the Central Research Laboratories, Bharat Electronics, and the Center for Development of Advanced Computing, Dept. of Electronics (as co-founder). These labs are now a part of India's vast R&D infrastructure. He retired prematurely from the Indian Navy in 1991 with a rank of Commodore

Career in USA

Moving from India, Paulraj joined Stanford University faculty in 1992. His invention (1992) for exploiting multiple antennas at both ends of a wireless link (

MIMO In radio, multiple-input and multiple-output, or MIMO (), is a method for multiplying the capacity of a radio link using multiple transmission and receiving antennas to exploit multipath propagation. MIMO has become an essential element of wi ...

) lies at the heart of the current high speed

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...

and 4G and 5G mobile networks, and has revolutionized high-speed wireless services for billions of people.

boosts data rate by creating parallel data streams, multiplying throughput by the number of antennas used. He ran a MIMO research program at Stanford for two decades before retiring in 2010. He founded three companies: Iospan Wireless for MIMO-OFDMA core technology (acquired by Intel), and Beceem Communications for 4G chips (acquired by Broadcom), have helped create a wireless technology eco-system now shipping billions of

wireless devices annually. He founded Rasa Networks (acquired by Aruba /HPE) for using AI tools in WiFi network analytics. Paulraj has two textbooks on

, over 400 archival research publications and a co-inventor in 80 patents.

Awards and honors

* Elected into the

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, a ...

(AAAS) in 2020. * Inducted into the US Patent Trademark Office

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also oper ...

in 2018. * Foreign Member Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences * Foreign Member Chinese Academy of Engineering * The

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

award by the Indian Government in 2010. *

IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal The IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal is an award honoring ''"exceptional contributions to communications and networking sciences and engineering"'' in the field of telecommunications. The medal is one of the highest honors awarded by the Instit ...

in 2011. *

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 ...

and Fellowship in 2014. I * Foreign Fellow Indian Academy of Sciences * Foreign Fellow Indian National Science Academy * Fellow of the

Indian National Academy of Engineering The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), founded in 1987, comprises India's engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists covering the entire spectrum of engineering disciplines. The Academy is registered under the Societies Reg ...

* Overseas Fellow

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...

. * Member

United States 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 ...

, elected in 2006. *

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. * Technical Achievement Award from the

IEEE Signal Processing Society The IEEE Signal Processing Society (IEEE SPS) is one of the nearly 40 technical societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the first one created. Its mission is to "advance and disseminate state-of-the-art scien ...

in 2003. * Fellow of The World Academy for Sciences, elected in 2007. *

of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 1991.

References

External links

Stanford page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paulraj, Arogyaswami Stanford University School of Engineering faculty Living people 1944 births People from Coimbatore Indian Navy officers Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in science & engineering Tamil engineers Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering American people of Indian descent 20th-century Indian engineers Engineers from Tamil Nadu