Hendrik Christoffel Ferreira (1954 – November 20, 2018, in
Johannesburg) was a professor in Digital Communications and
Information Theory
Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...
at the
University of Johannesburg,
Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Biography
He studied electrical engineering at the
University of Pretoria,
South Africa, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1980. He worked as a visiting researcher at
Linkabit in
San Diego. He joined the
Rand Afrikaans University in 1983, where, in 1989, he was appointed full professor. In recognition of his excellence in research and educating post-graduate students, he has been appointed as a
research professor at the
University of Johannesburg in 2007. He is a Fellow of the
SAIEE, the South African Institute of
Electrical Engineers.
Ferreira published close to 250 research papers on topics such as
digital communications,
power line communications
Power-line communication (also known as power-line carrier or PLC) carries data on a conductor that is also used simultaneously for AC electric power transmission or electric power distribution to consumers.
A wide range of power-line communicati ...
,
vehicular communication systems. With his work he introduced and developed a new theme in Information Theory, namely coding techniques for constructing combined channel codes, where
error correction
In information theory and coding theory with applications in computer science and telecommunication, error detection and correction (EDAC) or error control are techniques that enable reliable delivery of digital data over unreliable communica ...
and channel properties are considered jointly.
Ferreira was a pioneering initiator and stimulator of the research fields of Information Theory and Power Line Communications in
South Africa. He also was an organizer of the
IEEE Information Theory
Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...
Society and Power Line Communications within
South Africa and
Africa. He was a member of the Technical Committee for Power Line Communications of the
IEEE Communications Society, and he served on the Technical Program Committee of several
IEEE conferences, including the IEEE (ISIT) International Symposium on Information Theory, the IEEE (ISPLC) International Symposium on Power Line Communications, and the IEEE Africon and Chinacom conferences.
An obituary by his colleague
Han Vinck was presented during a workshop in 2019.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferreira, Hendrik C.
Information theorists
Academic staff of the University of Johannesburg
University of Pretoria alumni
Living people
1954 births