Paul Eliot Green, Jr. (January 14, 1924 – March 22, 2018) was an American electrical engineer who researched

spread spectrum In telecommunication and radio communication, spread-spectrum techniques are methods by which a signal (e.g., an electrical, electromagnetic, or acoustic signal) generated with a particular bandwidth is deliberately spread in the frequency d ...

and

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

technology. He was the son of playwright Paul Green.

Biography

Green was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on January 14, 1924. Green majored in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

. He also served in the

Naval ROTC The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) program is a college-based, commissioned officer training program of the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Origins A pilot Naval Reserve unit was established in September 192 ...

and continued in the Navy Reserve for many years, eventually retiring as a lieutenant commander. He received a master's degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University in 1948. His masters studies focused on cryptographic research, and were followed by

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 ...

from M.I.T. (1953) on a thesis on

, supervised by Wilbur Davenport,

Robert Fano Roberto Mario "Robert" Fano (11 November 1917 – 13 July 2016) was an Italian-American computer scientist and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He became a student and working ...

and

Jerome Wiesner Jerome Bert Wiesner (May 30, 1915 – October 21, 1994) was a professor of electrical engineering, chosen by President John F. Kennedy as chairman of his Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). Educated at the University of Michigan, Wiesner was asso ...

. This involved co-creating the

Rake receiver A rake receiver is a radio receiver designed to counter the effects of multipath fading. It does this by using several "sub-receivers" called ''fingers'', that is, several correlators each assigned to a different multipath component. Each finger ...

(with Robert Price) and supervision of its deployment in a first-ever spread-spectrum system, the Lincoln F9C (1950). Following his studies, Green and Price (at

MIT Lincoln Laboratory The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and dev ...

), attempting to bounce

waves off the planet

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

(1958). With Gordon Pettengill, he worked out a theory of range- Doppler mapping that was used on the

Magellan probe The ''Magellan'' spacecraft was a robotic space probe launched by NASA of the United States, on May 4, 1989, to map the surface of Venus by using synthetic-aperture radar and to measure the planetary gravitational field. The ''Magellan'' p ...

mapping of

' surface twenty years later. He also designed the LASA (Large Aperture Seismic Array) for

earthquake prediction Earthquake prediction is a branch of the science of seismology concerned with the specification of the time, location, and magnitude of future earthquakes within stated limits, and particularly "the determination of parameters for the ''next'' ...

, first deployed in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

(at

NORSAR NORSAR or Norwegian Seismic Array was established in 1968 as part of the Norwegian- US agreement for the detection of earthquakes and nuclear explosions. Description Located at Kjeller, north of Oslo, NORSAR runs and maintains seismic arrays i ...

) in 1963. In 1969, Green became head of

IBM Research IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. IBM Research is the largest industrial research or ...

, communications dept., involved in the

Systems Network Architecture Systems Network Architecture (SNA) is IBM's proprietary networking architecture, created in 1974. It is a complete protocol stack for interconnecting computers and their resources. SNA describes formats and protocols but, in itself, is not a pi ...

, in particular, the Advanced peer-to-peer networking protocol. Since 1988 he headed the

optical communications 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 ...

(focusing on

wavelength division multiplexing In fiber-optic communications, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (i.e., colors) of laser light. This techniqu ...

) research group that was acquired by Tellabs company where he worked 1997-2000. Since his retirement, he had lobbied for expanded public access to broadband technology. He died at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on March 22, 2018.

Publications

Green published extensively during his career; major works include ''Fiber Optic Networks'' (1992) and ''Fiber to the Home: The New Empowerment'' (2005). Since 1981 he authored around 300 CommuniCrostics

crossword A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the ans ...

s in the IEEE Communications Magazine, published as a book in 2008. * ''Fiber Optic Networks'', 1992 * ''Fiber to the Home: The New Empowerment'', 2005 * ''CommuniCrostics'', 2008

Honors

* Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1962). * Aerospace pioneer award (1980). * Elected 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 of ...

(1982). *

Simon Ramo Simon "Si" Ramo (May 7, 1913 – June 27, 2016) was an American engineer, businessman, and author. He led development of microwave and missile technology and is sometimes known as the father of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). He ...

medal (1991). *

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 ...

president (1992–93). *

SIGCOMM Award The SIGCOMM Award recognizes lifetime contribution to the field of communication networks. The award is presented in the annual SIGCOMM Technical Conference. The awardees have been: * 2022 Henning Schulzrinne * 2021 Hari Balakrishnan * 2020 Ami ...

(1994).

References

External links

Oral history interview: Paul Green (1999)

Paul E. Green Jr.
on Engineering and Technology Wiki {{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Paul 1924 births 2018 deaths American electrical engineers People associated with radar Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Fellow Members of the IEEE IBM employees Crossword compilers MIT Lincoln Laboratory people Presidents of the IEEE Communications Society People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina