John O. Limb is an Australian engineer, known for fundamental contributions to the development of digital video communications and holder of a series of patents related to

computer communication A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are mad ...

Early life and education

Born in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, he got a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (B.E.E.) (1963) and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

on the thesis ''Vision Oriented Coding of Visual Signal'' (1967), both from the

University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...

. See section "Emeritus/Part Time Faculty", Prof. John Limb. Limb studied the human vision's role in the encoding of picture, partially under the direction of Dr. Albert Seyler and Professor Zig Budrikis.

Career

He worked as researcher at the Postmaster-General's Department's research laboratory in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

(1966–67) before moving to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

where he joined

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

(1967), being manager of the department for visual communications research (1971–78) leading to patents. He then led the research department for distributed computer systems (1978–84) before going to Bellcore research where Limb was in charge of developing the new research division for communications sciences (1984–86) where he among other projects, developed medium access control protocols for

local area network A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building. By contrast, a wide area network (WAN) not only covers a larger ...

s. Later he joined

Hewlett Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

as director of laboratories in

Bristol, England Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in S ...

(1986–89), for the technology analysis group at Cupertino, California (1989) and for the media technology group (1992–94). Distributed Computer Systems Research Department where the emphasis was on office information systems and local/metropolitan area networks. Recently, he has worked on

optical communication Optical communication, also known as optical telecommunication, is communication at a distance using light to carry information. It can be performed visually or by using electronic devices. The earliest basic forms of optical communication date b ...

systems at Broadcom, working at

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. He has held visiting professorships at the

Technical University of Hannover Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (german: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität), also known as the University of Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831 as Higher Vocational Sc ...

(1975), the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

(1983), and the University of Essex (1985–86). Limb started at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

in 1994 as a

Georgia Research Alliance The Georgia Research Alliance is an Atlanta, Georgia-based nonprofit organization that coordinates research efforts between Georgia's public and private sectors. While GRA receives a state appropriation for investment in university-based research op ...

Eminent Scholar in Advanced Telecommunications. He joined the faculty staff of both the Networking & Telecommunications Group in the College of Computing, and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the

College 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 that ...

. He created the Georgia Tech Broadband Telecommunications Center in 1995.

Publications

*''Advances in

s'' (

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 ...

press, 1987)

Awards and honors

*1978 IEEE Fellow *1973 IEEE Communications Society "Leonard G. Abraham Prize" for best paper in the field of communications systems *1982 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award for the best review paper published in the Proceedings of the IEEE in 1980 *1991 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, along with

C. Chapin Cutler Cassius Chapin Cutler (December 16, 1914 – December 1, 2002) was an American electrical engineer at Bell Labs. His notable achievements include the invention of the corrugated waveguide and differential pulse-code modulation (DPCM). Biogr ...

and Arun N. Netravali

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Limb, John O. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Australian scientists American people of Australian descent Australian electrical engineers Scientists at Bell Labs University of Western Australia alumni Georgia Tech faculty Fellow Members of the IEEE