Dr. Arun Netravali, HDTV tech pioneer, wins Prestigious Marconi Award

Dr. Arun Netravali, former president of Bell Labs (now Nokia Bell Labs) and leader of key base technology for MPEG 1, 2 and 4 that ushered in digital video revolution in TV and mobile and streaming video has been awarded the prestigious Marconi Prize for 2017.

The Prize set up in honor of radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi consisting $100,000 is awarded to scientists who pursue advances in communications and information technology for the development of humanity. The award will be presented in New Jersey on August 3.

Past winners of Indian origin have been educationist and former University Grants Commission Chairman Prof. Yash Pal in 1980 and Stanford University emeritus professor and wireless antennas pioneer Dr. Arogyaswami Paulraj in 2014.

Netravali (born 26 May 1946 in Mumbai, India) is an Indian-American computer engineer credited with major contributions in digital technology including HDTV. He carried out influential research in digital compression, signal processing, and other fields.

He was the 9th President of Bell Laboratories and has served as Lucent’s Chief Technology Officer and Chief Network Architect. He received his undergraduate degree from IIT Bombay, India, and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Rice University in Houston, Texas, all in electrical engineering. Several global universities, including the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne, Switzerland, have honored him with honorary doctorates.

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