Toby Berger (September 4, 1940 – May 25, 2022) was an American

information theorist Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification, storage, and communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley, in the 1920s, and Claude Shannon in the 1940s. T ...

Early life and education

Berger was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, to a Jewish family. He received a bachelor's degree in

electrical engineering 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 ...

from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1962, and doctoral degree in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical s ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1968.

Career

From 1962 to 1968 he was also a senior scientist at

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...

. From 1968 to 2005 he taught at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, and in 2006 joined the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

. His primary interests were in

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 ...

random field In physics and mathematics, a random field is a random function over an arbitrary domain (usually a multi-dimensional space such as \mathbb^n). That is, it is a function f(x) that takes on a random value at each point x \in \mathbb^n(or some other d ...

communication network A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, messag ...

video compression In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression ...

, signature verification, coherent

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 ...

quantum information theory Quantum information is the information of the quantum state, state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information re ...

, and bio-information theory. Berger 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 ...

in 2006 for contributions to the theory and practice of lossy data compression. He was also an

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 ...

, a President of the

IEEE Information Theory 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 ...

(1979), and a member of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, the

American Society for Engineering Education The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) is a non-profit member association, founded in 1893, dedicated to promoting and improving engineering and engineering technology education. The purpose of ASEE is the advancement of education ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 1987 to 1989. He received the 2002 Claude E. Shannon Award for his contributions to information theory, and the 2011

IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal is presented annually to up to three persons, for outstanding achievements in information sciences, information systems and information technology. The recipients receive a gold medal, together with a replica in ...

. Berger was also a co-founder of

SightSpeed SightSpeed is a videoconferencing company, supplying VoIP and instant messaging app for Windows and macOS operating systems. The service allows people to make video calls, computer-to-computer voice calls, and calls to regular telephones, with f ...

, a company which originated in his lab at

, which was acquired by Logitech in 2008. In 2017 he co-founded with his former student a Wi-Fi networks technology company, Cayuga Wireless, that is based on their multiple access research for multiuser physical layers.

Awards

* IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal (2011) * IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award (2006) * Member, National Academy of Engineering (2006) * Claude E. Shannon Award, IEEE Information Theory Society (2002) * IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000) * Frederick E. Terman Award of the American Society for Engineering Education for Outstanding Young Electrical Engineering Educator (1982) * Fellowship, Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China (1981) * Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship (1980-81) * IEEE Fellow (1977) * Guggenheim Fellowship (1975-76)

Death

Berger died on May 25, 2022, at the age of 81.Toby Berger obituary
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Selected works

* ''Rate-distortion theory: A mathematical basis for data compression'', Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971. * ''Digital Compression for Multimedia'', San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 1998.

References

External links

Cornell faculty web page

Quantum information research
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Toby 1940 births 2022 deaths American people of Jewish descent Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni Harvard University alumni American information theorists Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Cornell University faculty University of Virginia faculty Fellow Members of the IEEE People from New York City