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Martin Cooper (born December 26, 1928) is an American engineer. He is a pioneer in the
wireless communications Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
industry, especially in radio
spectrum management Spectrum management is the process of regulating the use of radio frequencies to promote efficient use and gain a net social benefit.Martin Cave, Chris Doyle, William Webb, ''Modern Spectrum Management'', Cambridge University Press, 2007 The term ...
, with eleven patents in the field.Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2008
encyclopedia.com
On April 3, 1973, using the patented technology Marty Cooper and his team reprised, Motorola engineer Marty Cooper placed the first public call from a real handheld portable cell phone at
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
. Cooper reprised the first handheld cellular mobile phone (distinct from the
car phone A car phone is a mobile radio telephone specifically designed for and fitted into an automobile. This service originated with the Bell System and was first used in St. Louis on June 17, 1946. Overview The original equipment weighed , and th ...
) in 1973 and led the team that re-developed it and brought it to market in 1983.A Chat With the Man Behind the Mobiles
BBC, April 21, 2003
Meet Marty Cooper, the Inventor of the Mobile Phone
BBC, April 23, 2010
He is considered the "father of the (handheld)
cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
"Father of the Cell Phone
Economist, June 4, 2009
and is also cited as the first person in history to make a handheld cellular phone call in public, namely in 1973.
CNN. April 3, 2011
Cooper is co-founder of numerous communications companies with his wife and business partner
Arlene Harris Arlene Harris (July 7, 1896 – June 12, 1976) was a Canadian-born American radio, film, and television actress. (Another source gives her date of birth as July 7, 1898.) She was best known for her role as "the human chatterbox" on Al Pearce's ...
; He is co-founder and current Chairman of Dyna LLC, in
Del Mar, California Del Mar (; Spanish for "Of the Sea") is a beach town in San Diego County, California, located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Established in 1885 as a seaside resort, the city incorporated in 1959. The Del Mar Horse Races are hosted on the De ...
. Cooper also sits on committees supporting the
U.S. Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...
and the
United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...
. In 2010, Cooper was elected a member of 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 leadership in the creation and deployment of the cellular portable hand-held telephone.


Education

Cooper was born in Chicago to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. He graduated from
Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...
(IIT) in 1950 and served as a submarine officer during the
Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
. In 1957, he earned his master's degree from IIT in electrical engineering and in 2004 received an honorary doctorate degree from IIT. He serves on the university's board of trustees.


Career


Motorola

Cooper left his first job at
Teletype A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint configurations. Initia ...
Corporation in Chicago in 1954 and joined Motorola, Inc. (
Schaumburg, Illinois Schaumburg ( ) is a village mostly in Cook County and partly in DuPage County in northeastern Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 78,723. Schaumburg is around northwest of the Chicago Loop and northwest of O'Hare I ...
) as a senior development engineer in the mobile equipment group. He developed products including the first cellular-like portable handheld police radio system, produced for the Chicago police department in 1967. Oehmke, Ted (January 6, 2000
Cell Phone Ruin the Opera? Meet the Culprit
''The New York Times''
By the early 1970s, Cooper headed Motorola's communications systems division. Here he conceived of the first portable cellular phone in 1973 and led the 10-year process of bringing it to market.
Car phone A car phone is a mobile radio telephone specifically designed for and fitted into an automobile. This service originated with the Bell System and was first used in St. Louis on June 17, 1946. Overview The original equipment weighed , and th ...
s had been in limited use in large U.S. cities since the 1930s but Cooper championed cellular telephony for more general personal, portable communications. He believed the cellular phone should be a "personal telephone – something that would represent an individual so you could assign a number; not to a place, not to a desk, not to a home, but to a person." Although it has been stated that Cooper's vision for the device was inspired by Captain
James T. Kirk James Tiberius Kirk is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. Originally played by Canadian actor William Shatner, Kirk first appeared in ''Star Trek'' serving aboard the starship USS ''Enterprise'' as captain. Kirk leads ...
using his Communicator on the television show
Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...
, Cooper himself later said that his actual inspiration was
Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...
's wrist radio. Top management at Motorola supported Cooper's mobile phone concept, investing $100 million between 1973 and 1993 before any revenues were realized. Cooper assembled a team that designed and assembled a product in less than 90 days. That original handset, called the
DynaTAC 8000x DynaTAC is a series of cellular telephones manufactured by Motorola, Inc. from 1983 to 1994. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X commercial portable cellular phone received approval from the U.S. FCC on September 21, 1983. A full charge took roughly ...
(DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) weighed 2.5 pounds (1.1 kg), measured 10 inches (25 cm) long and was dubbed "the brick" or "the shoe" phone.Inventor of Cell Phone: We Knew Someday Everybody Would Have One
CNN, July 9, 2010
A very substantial part of the DynaTAC was the battery, which weighed four to five times more than a modern cell phone. The phone had only 30 minutes of talk time before requiring a 10-hour recharge but according to Cooper, "The battery lifetime wasn't really a problem because you couldn't hold that phone up for that long!" By 1983 and after four iterations, the handset was reduced to half its original weight. Cooper is the lead inventor named on "radio telephone system" filed on October 17, 1973, with the
U.S. Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...
and later issued as U.S. Patent 3,906,166.
John Francis Mitchell John Francis Mitchell (January 1, 1928 – June 9, 2009) was an American electronics engineer and president and chief operating officer of Motorola. Mitchell led the pioneering development and implementation of Motorola's mobile phone technolo ...
, Motorola's Chief of Portable Communication Products (and Cooper's Manager and Mentor) and the engineers who worked for Cooper and Mitchell are also named on the patent. On April 3, 1973, Cooper and Mitchell demonstrated two working phones to the media and to passers-by prior to walking into a scheduled press conference at the New York City Hilton in midtown Manhattan. Standing on Sixth avenue near the Hilton, Cooper made the first handheld cellular phone call in public from the prototype DynaTAC. The call connected him to a base station Motorola had installed on the roof of the
Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earls of Burlington and was expanded in the mid-19th century after being purchased by the British government. Toda ...
(now the AllianceBernstein Building) and into the AT&T land-line telephone system. Reporters and onlookers watched as Cooper dialed the number of his chief competitor Dr. Joel S. Engel at AT&T.April 3, 1973: Motorola Calls AT&T...by Cell
Wired, April 3, 2008
"Joel, this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld portable cell phone." That public demonstration landed the DynaTAC on the July 1973 cover of ''
Popular Science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
'' Magazine. As Cooper recalls from the experience: "I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter – probably one of the most dangerous things I have ever done in my life." That first cell phone began a fundamental technology and communications market shift to making
phone calls A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the called party and the calling party. First telephone call The first telephone call was made on March 10, 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell demonstrated his ability to "ta ...
to a person instead of to a place.
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 ...
had introduced the idea of cellular communications in 1947, but their first systems were limited to
car phone A car phone is a mobile radio telephone specifically designed for and fitted into an automobile. This service originated with the Bell System and was first used in St. Louis on June 17, 1946. Overview The original equipment weighed , and th ...
s which required roughly 30 pounds (12 kg) of equipment in the trunk. Motorola gained Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval for cellular licenses to be assigned to competing entities and prevented an AT&T monopoly on cellular service. Cooper worked at Motorola for 29 years; building and managing both its paging and cellular businesses. He also led the creation of trunked mobile radio,
quartz crystals Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
, oscillators,
liquid crystal displays A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but i ...
, piezo-electric components, Motorola A. M. stereo technology and various mobile and portable
two-way radio A two-way radio is a radio that can both transmit and receive radio waves (a transceiver), unlike a broadcast receiver which only receives content. It is an audio (sound) transceiver, a transmitter and receiver in one unit, used for bidirecti ...
product lines. Cooper rose to Vice-President and Corporate Director of Research and Development at Motorola. In addition to his work on the mobile cellular phone, he was instrumental in expanding the technology of
pager A pager (also known as a beeper or bleeper) is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknow ...
s from use within a single building to use across multiple cities. Cooper also worked with inventor Clifford L. Rose to fix a flaw in
quartz crystals Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
used in Motorola's radios which encouraged the company to mass-produce the first crystals used in wrist watches.


Cellular Business Systems


Dyna LLC

Cooper and his wife Arlene Harris founded Dyna LLC in 1986 as a home base for their developmental and support activities for the new companies, Subscriber Computing Inc., Cellular Pay Phone, Inc. (CPPI), SOS Wireless Communications and Accessible Wireless; the later two of which together created the underpinning for the creation of
GreatCall Lively (stylized as Live!y, and known before 2021 as GreatCall) is a connected health technology company based in the United States of America. Since 2018, the company has been a subsidiary of electronics retailer Best Buy. Lively offers healt ...
, were all launched from Dyna LLC. From his Dyna headquarters Cooper continues to write and lecture about wireless communications, technological innovation, the Internet and R&D management. He serves on industry, civic and national governmental groups including the U.S. Department of Commerce Spectrum Advisory Committee that advises the
Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...
of the United States on spectrum policy and the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) Technological Advisory Council.


GreatCall, Inc

In 1986 Cooper co-founded Cellular Payphone Inc. (CPPI), the parent company of GreatCall, Inc., Innovator of the Jitterbug cell phone (in partnership with
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
). GreatCall is the first complete end-to-end value-added service provider in the cellular industry to focus on simplicity with its primary emphasis on senior citizens.


Arraycomm

In 1992 Cooper co-founded Arraycomm a developer of software for mobile antenna technologies. Under his leadership, the Company grew from a seed-funded startup in San Jose, California, into the world leader in
smart antenna Smart antennas (also known as adaptive array antennas, digital antenna arrays, multiple antennas and, recently, MIMO) are antenna arrays with smart signal processing algorithms used to identify spatial signal signatures such as the direction of a ...
technology with 400 patents issued or pending, worldwide.Antennas Get Smart
Scientific American, June 9, 2003


Energous.com

Cooper joined the board of directors from 2015 to 2019.


Cooper's law

Cooper found that the ability to transmit different radio communications simultaneously and in the same place has grown at the same pace since
Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italians, Italian inventor and electrical engineering, electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegrap ...
's first transmissions in 1895. This led Cooper to formulate the Law of Spectral Efficiency, otherwise known as Cooper's Law. The law states that the maximum number of voice conversations or equivalent data transactions that can be conducted in all of the useful
radio spectrum The radio spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies from 0  Hz to 3,000 GHz (3  THz). Electromagnetic waves in this frequency range, called radio waves, are widely used in modern technology, particula ...
over a given area doubles every 30 months.


Publications


Latest publications

"The Myth of Spectrum Scarcity" Position Paper, March 2010. "Mobile WiMax – Fourth-Generation Wireless," Bechtel Communications Technical Journal, September 2007. "The Need for Simplicity," in the anthology "Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives on the Future of Behavior Change," published by Stanford University in 2007. "Personal Communications in 2025" for
Eta Kappa Nu Eta Kappa Nu () or IEEE-HKN is the international honor society of the Computer Science and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). "The organization promotes excellence in the profession and in education through an emphasis ...
Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society, Autumn 2005. "Antennas Get Smart" in Scientific American, July 2003. "Everyone is Wrong" in Technology Review, June 2001.


Awards and affiliations

* Mensa * 1984 –
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 ...
Centennial Medal and Fellow * 1995 – Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award * 1996 – Radio Club of America Fred Link Award and Life Fellow with the International Engineering Consortium * 2000 – "Red Herring" Magazine Top Ten Entrepreneurs of 2000 * 2000 –
RCR Wireless News ''RCR Wireless News'' is a digital wireless telecommunications industry trade publication. The core focus of the publisher are its news website, daily newsletters and editorial content, including reports and webinars. Alongside this, the organiz ...
Hall of Fame Inaugural Member * 2002 –
American Computer Museum The American Computer & Robotics Museum (ACRM), formerly known as the American Computer Museum, is a museum of the history of computing, Communication protocol, communications, artificial intelligence and robotics that is located in Bozeman, Mont ...
George Stibitz George Robert Stibitz (April 30, 1904 – January 31, 1995) was a Bell Labs researcher internationally recognized as one of the fathers of the modern digital computer. He was known for his work in the 1930s and 1940s on the realization of Boole ...
Computer and Communications Pioneer Award * 2002 – Wireless Systems Design Industry Leader Award * 2006 – CITA Emerging Technologies Award * 2007 – Wireless World Research Forum Fellow * 2007 – Global Spec Great Moments Engineering Award * 2008 – CE Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame Award * October 2008 – Wireless History Foundation, Top U.S. Wireless Innovators of All Time. * 2009 –
Prince of Asturias Award The Princess of Asturias Awards ( es, Premios Princesa de Asturias, links=no, ast, Premios Princesa d'Asturies, links=no), formerly the Prince of Asturias Awards from 1981 to 2014 ( es, Premios Príncipe de Asturias, links=no), are a series of a ...
for scientific and technical research. * 2009 – Life Trustee, Illinois Institute of Technology * 2010 – Radio Club of America, Lifetime Achievement Award * October 2010 – Member,
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 ...
* 2011 – Inaugural
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
: The Man Who Changed the World Awards Nominee * 2011 –
Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...
for Lifetime Achievement * 2012 – Washington Society of Engineers,
Washington Award The Washington Award is an American engineering award. Since 1916 it has been given annually for "accomplishments which promote the happiness, comfort, and well-being of humanity". It is awarded jointly by the following engineering societies: Amer ...
* 2013 –
Charles Stark Draper Prize The U.S. National Academy of Engineering annually awards the Draper Prize, which is given for the advancement of engineering and the education of the public about engineering. It is one of three prizes that constitute the "Nobel Prizes of Enginee ...
, National Academy of Engineering * 2013 – Marconi Prize * 2013 – Honorary doctorate awarded by the students and the rector of Hasselt University on the occasion of the university's 40th anniversary.Academische Openingszitting 2013–2014
uhasselt.be. September 27, 2013
* 2014 IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu Eminent Membe

* 2019 – Leaves the Energous board of directors.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Martin American telecommunications industry businesspeople American inventors 1928 births Living people People from Chicago Illinois Institute of Technology alumni United States Navy personnel of the Korean War American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Mensans IEEE Centennial Medal laureates