Dave Forney

George D. Forney
Born	March 6, 1940 (1940-03-06) (age 71) New York City, New York
Notable awards	IEEE Edison Medal (1992) Claude E. Shannon Award (1995).

George David "Dave" Forney, Jr. (born March 6, 1940) is an electrical engineer who has made contributions in telecommunication system theory, specifically in coding theory and information theory.

He received the B.S.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 1961, summa cum laude, and the M.S. and Sc.D degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963 and 1965, respectively. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering (1989) and National Academy of Sciences (2003). He is a long-time faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Among other things, he is generally credited with being the first to recognize the optimality and practical importance of the Viterbi algorithm [1], and his tutorial paper on the subject is widely cited.^[1] His work in the Viterbi algorithm and in advancing the understanding of coding theory in general has influenced the design of modern digital modems. His Sc.D thesis in 1965 introduced the idea of concatenated codes.

He received the IEEE Edison Medal in 1992 "for original contributions to coding, modulation, data communication modems, and for industrial and research leadership in communications technology".^[2] In 1995 he received the Claude E. Shannon Award from the IEEE Information Theory Society^[3] and he received twice, in 1990 and in 2009, the IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award.^[4] In 1998 Forney, Jr. received a Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation from the IEEE Information Theory Society.^[5]

See also

• Forney algorithm

Notes and references

1. ^ G. D. Forney. The Viterbi algorithm. Proceedings of the IEEE 61(3):268–278, March 1973.
2. ^ "IEEE Edison Medal Recipients". IEEE. http://www.ieee.org/documents/edison_rl.pdf. Retrieved January 2, 2011 (2011-01-02). 
3. ^ "Claude E. Shannon Award". IEEE Information Theory Society. http://www.itsoc.org/honors/claude-e.-shannon-award/. Retrieved January 5, 2011 (2011-01-05). 
4. ^ "IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award Recipients". IEEE. http://www.ieee.org/documents/fink_rl.pdf. Retrieved January 2, 2011 (2011-01-02). 
5. ^ "Golden Jubilee Awards for Technological Innovation". IEEE Information Theory Society. http://www.itsoc.org/honors/golden-jubilee-awards-for-technological-innovation. Retrieved July 14, 2011 (2011-07-14). 

External links

• [2] from the IEEE History Center.
• Recent publications at the Arxiv.

Persondata
Name	Forney, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 6, 1940
Place of birth	New York City, New York
Date of death
Place of death