Richard D. Gitlin (born April 25, 1943) is an

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

, research executive, and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

whose principal places of employment were

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 ...

and the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

(USF). He is known for his work on

digital subscriber line Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric di ...

(DSL), multi-code

CDMA Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...

, and smart

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 wir ...

antenna technology all while at Bell Labs.

Education and career

Gitlin was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and graduated from the noted James Madison High School in 1959. He received a BEE (with honors) in electrical engineering from

The City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, City ...

(CCNY) in 1964, followed by an MSEE in 1965 and a Doctor of Engineerin
Science
in 1969, both from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Gitlin's research, under the supervision of Dr. William R. Bennett, was in the area of adaptive

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, and scientific measurements. Signal processing techniq ...

used early

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

techniques for signal classification and detection. After receiving his doctorate, Gitlin joined

Bell Laboratories 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 ...

, where he worked for 32 years in research and development of

digital communications Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point or ...

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

ing, and

wireless 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 ...

systems. His work there resulted in many innovative products, including: co-invention of DSL (digital subscriber line), invention of multicode CDMA (used in 3G wireless), and pioneering the use of smart antennas (“MIMO”) for wireless systems. Earlier in his career, Gitlin led the team that created the first V.32/V.34 duplex, high-speed

modems A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

that used

echo cancellation Echo suppression and echo cancellation are methods used in telephony to improve voice quality by preventing echo from being created or removing it after it is already present. In addition to improving subjective audio quality, echo suppression i ...

, fractionally spaced equalization, and

trellis coded modulation In telecommunication, trellis modulation (also known as trellis coded modulation, or simply TCM) is a modulation scheme that transmits information with high efficiency over band-limited channels such as telephone lines. Gottfried Ungerboeck inven ...

. At his retirement in 2001, Gitlin was Senior VP for Communications and Networking Research at Bell Labs (then reorganized as

Lucent Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the dives ...

), leading a multi-national research organization with over 500 professionals. After retiring from Bell Labs, he was visiting professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University, Chief Technology Officer of NEC Labs America, CTO of Hammerhead Systems, a venture funded networking company in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

, and in 2008 he joined USF as a faculty member. He also served on the Board of Directors of PCTEL (NASDAQ: PCTI). At the

(USF) Gitlin was a

State of Florida Florida is a U.S. state, state located in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia (U.S. state), Geo ...

21st Century Scholar, Distinguished University Professor, and the

Agere Systems Agere Systems, Inc. was an integrated circuit components company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Spun out of Lucent Technologies in 2002, Agere was merged into LSI Corporation in 2007. LSI was in turn acquired by Avago Technologies in 2014. In ...

Chaired Professor of Electrical Engineering. Currently, he is Distinguished University Professor, Emeritus and a Professor in USF's Institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation. At USF his research had two major themes: (1) the intersection of communications with medicine to advance minimally invasive surgery and other cyber-physical health care systems and devices, such as a vectorcardiogram that uses machine learning to provide predictive 24/7 diagnostic quality cardiac care in a compact personal device and (2) creating novel, foundational technologies to ensure ultra-reliability, low latency, and other advanced technological capabilities for the emerging 5G wireless and IoT wireless networks, as well as future 6G wireless networks. He retired from USF in 2019. Gitlin has co-authored a data communications text, published more than 175 papers, including 3 prize-winning papers, and holds 75 US

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

. He currently lives with his wife, Barbara, in La Jolla, CA. Dr. Gitlin has made significant research contributions which have been sustained and prolific over several decades and he continues to be a leading thinker, innovator, and a global technology leader.

Honors and awards

AAAS Fellow
(2020)
Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine of Florida (2018)
*Florida Inventors Hall of Fame (2017) *Distinguished University Professor-University of South Florida (2013) * Charter Fellow of the

National Academy of Inventors The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) is a US non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging inventors in academia, following the model of the National Academies of the United States. It was founded at the University of South Florida in 2010. ...

(NAI) (2012) *

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 “contributions to communications systems and networking” (2005) *

Thomas Alva Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...

patent award from the R&D Council of New Jersey (2005) * AT&T Bell Labs Fellow, for “contributions to data communications” (1987) *

IEEE Fellow As of 2019, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has 5,082 members designated Fellow, each of whom is associated with one of the 41 societies under the IEEE. The Fellow grade of membership is the highest level of membershi ...

for “contributions to data communications techniques” (1986) *

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 ...

Steven O. Rice Award (1995) * IEEE Communications Society Frederick Ellersick Award (1994) *

Bell System Technical Journal The ''Bell Labs Technical Journal'' is the in-house scientific journal for scientists of Nokia Bell Labs, published yearly by the IEEE society. The managing editor is Charles Bahr. The journal was originally established as the ''Bell System Techn ...

Award (1982) * Honor Societies:

Tau Beta Pi The Tau Beta Pi Association (commonly Tau Beta Pi, , or TBP) is the oldest engineering honor society and the second oldest collegiate honor society in the United States. It honors engineering students in American universities who have shown a ...

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 ...

, and

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

References

External links

* Richard Gitlin’s personal websit
iWINLAB
* National Academy of Engineerin
Dr. Richard D. Gitlin

National Academy of Inventors - PDF

USF’s Richard Gitlin elected to the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame

Mr. Wizard’s Fantastic VoyageWUSF Interview on election to the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame, April 2017Interview at USFRemarks at Madison Wall of Distinction installation, April 29, 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gitlin, Richard D. Living people 1943 births Scientists at Bell Labs Electrical engineering academics Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Fellow Members of the IEEE University of South Florida faculty James Madison High School (Brooklyn) alumni City College of New York alumni Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni American textbook writers