Advanced Career Honors

National Academy of Engineering Members

Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and the Henry Salvatori Chair in Computer Science, Dr. Adleman co-invented the RSA public key crypto-system and has worked on primacy testing algorithms. His 1992 paper in Science, demonstrating that DNA can be used as a computing medium, introduced the field of molecular computing, which he has subsequently developed. Adleman and collaborators received the Association for Computing Machinery’s A.M. Turing Award for their RSA innovations. Elected 1996.

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George A. Bekey

Emeritus Professor of Computer Science, Dr. Bekey is known for his distinguished work in biomedical engineering, man-machine systems and robotics. Dr. Bekey founded the robotics research and teaching program at USC. He was one of the founders of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Robotics and Automation Society and the first editor of its IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation. Elected 1982.

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P. Daniel Dapkus

The William M. Keck Chair in Engineering with a joint appointment in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering Electrophysics and the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and director of the Photonics Center at USC, Dr. Dapkus has provided leadership and made fundamental contributions to the development of materials and technologies for photonic devices. Prior to his arrival at USC, Dapkus was on the technical staffs at Bell Laboratories and Rockwell International. His leadership in the demonstration of the viability of MOCVD at Rockwell led to its status as the most widely used process for the research and manufacture of photonic materials and devices. Among his other awards and honors, Dapkus is a recipient of the OSA Nick Holonyak, Jr. Award and a Fellow of AAAS. Elected 2004.

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Robert W. Hellwarth

A University Professor of Physics, the George T. Pfleger Chair in Electrical Engineering and a professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering Electrophysics, Dr. Hellwarth made major contributions to the understanding of quantum electronics and the invention of new laser devices. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the L. A. Hyland Patent Award, the Charles Hard Townes Award of the Optical Society of America, and the Quantum Electronics Award of the IEEE. Elected 1977.

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Ming Hsieh

Ming Hsieh, BSEE ’83, MSEE ’84, is a USC Trustee and alumnus. Hsieh currently serves as Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Fulgent Therapeutics. Fulgent develops targeted nano-delivery platform technologies and innovative biological drugs to combat cancers. Prior to Fulgent Therapeutics, Hsieh was Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Cogent Inc. Under his leadership, Cogent became the worldwide leader in providing law enforcement, military, and commercial enterprises and other government agencies with large scale, reliable, accurate, and real-time biometrics identification services. In 2006, Hsieh endowed the USC Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, the USC Viterbi School’s largest and oldest department. Elected 2015.

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William Lindsey

Sanjit Mitra

C.L. Max Nikias

The University of Southern California’s 11th President, holder of the Robert C. Packard Presidential Chair and the Malcolm R. Currie Chair in Technology and the Humanities, and Professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, Dr. Nikias is an inventive scholar and visionary academic leader. Nikias, the former Executive Vice President and Provost, has made seminal contributions to the field of adaptive signal processing. Elected 2008.

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Robert A. Scholtz

Robert A. Scholtz is a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Cincinnati, where, as a Sheffield Scholar, he received the Degree in Electrical Engineer in 1958. He was a Hughes Masters and Doctoral Fellow while obtaining his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from USC in 1960 and Stanford University in 1964 respectively.

In 1963, Dr. Scholtz joined the faculty of the University of Southern California, where he is the Fred H. Cole Professor of Engineering. From 1984 through 1989, he served as Director of USC's Communication Sciences Institute, and from 1994 to 2000 he was Chairman of the Electrical Engineering Systems Department. In 1996, Dr. Scholtz formed the Ultrawideband Radio Laboratory (UltRa Lab) to provide facilities for the design and test of impulse radio systems and other novel high-bandwidth high-data-rate wireless mobile communication links. He has served as a consultant to several corporations and government agencies.

Dr. Scholtz is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has received several best paper awards, including the 1984 Donald G. Fink Prize, 1992 Senior Award and the 2012 Best Paper Award of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, the 2003 S. A. Schelkunoff Prize from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society. Dr. Scholtz is a co-recipient of the 2006 Eric E. Sumner Medal from the IEEE “for pioneering contributions to ultra-wide band communications science and technology.”

Dr. Scholtz has been an active member of the IEEE for many years, manning several organizational posts, including Finance Chairman for the 1977 National Telecommunications Conference, Program Chairman for the 1981 International Symposium on Information Theory, and Board of Governors positions for the Information Theory Group and the Communications Society. He has been General Chairman of seven workshops in the area of communications, including most recently three ultrawideband radio workshops.

Leonard M. Silverman

The Fred W. O’Green Chair in Engineering and Professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering Systems, Dr. Silverman served as dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering for 18 years. He has made classic contributions to systems and control theory and applications and built a national reputation for guiding exemplary engineering research and education. Elected 1988.

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John Brooks Slaughter

Dr. Slaughter, Professor of Engineering and Education, is renowned for his work in the design of digital control systems and for his endeavors to dramatically increase the number of underrepresented groups in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. He has been a leader in formulating national technology policy. Prior to rejoining the faculty of USC in 2010, Dr. Slaughter served as president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, president of Occidental College, chancellor of the University of Maryland, and director of the National Science Foundation. Elected 1982.

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Andrew J. Viterbi

A holder of the USC Presidential Chair and a professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering Systems, Dr. Viterbi is creator of the Viterbi Algorithm, co-developer of CDMA cell phone technology and co-founder of Qualcomm. A recipient of the National Medal of Science, Dr. Viterbi is a Laureate of the Millennium Technology Prize Foundation of Finland. He is also a recipient of the IEEE Claude E. Shannon Award, the Marconi Foundation Award, the Christopher Columbus Award and the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal. Dr. Viterbi is an elected member of the National Academy of Science and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Elected 1978.

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Lloyd R. Welch

Emeritus Professor of the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering Systems, Dr. Welch’s career has advanced the fields of digital communications, coding theory and signal processing by establishing parameters based on fundamentals of information theory to guide the design of communications coding for reliability, security and synchronization. He is known for the Baum-Welch Algorithm, the Welch Bound, and other classic work. He is a winner of the Claude E. Shannon Award of the IEEE. Elected 1979.

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Alan Willner

Professor Willner, Steven and Kathryn Sample Chair in Electrical Engineering, is one of the world’s leading experts in optics and photonics. He has had a significant impact in the development of the high-speed optical networks adopted by top telecommunications companies. These networks are used daily by people across the globe and have altered the pace of communication and business. Elected 2016.

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Mahta Moghaddam

William M. Hogue Professorship in Electrical Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering-Electrophysics, Dr. Moghaddam has introduced innovative approaches and algorithms for quantitative interpretation of multichannel radar imagery based on analytical inverse scattering techniques applied to complex and random media. Moghaddam is a Fellow of IEEE and a Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy. Elected 2019.

Foreign Academy Members and Fellows

Academy of Engineering, Mexico

Academy of Finland

Austrian Academy of Sciences

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Indian National Academy of Engineering

The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), founded in 1987, comprises India’s most distinguished engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists covering the entire spectrum of engineering disciplines. The aims and objects of the Academy are to promote and advance the practice of engineering and technology, related sciences and disciplines and their applications to problems of national importance. INAE also encourages inventions, investigations, and research in pursuit of excellence in the field of engineering.

Sanjit Mitra, Foreign Fellow

National Academy of Sciences, India

Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences

Established in 1955, the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (NTVA) is a member of the independent International Council of Academies of Engineering (CAETS, inducted 1990) and of the European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering (Euro-CASE). It is dedicated to the promotion of education in the technological and natural sciences through international collaboration and active dissemination of such educational activities to governments and the public. Founding CAETS members include the U.S. National Academy of Engineering; the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering; the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK; the Academy of Engineering, Mexico; and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

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Royal Academy of Engineering, UK

Technology Academy Finland

National Academy of Sciences

Leonard M. Adleman

Leonard Adleman co-invented the RSA public key crypto-system and has worked on primacy testing algorithms. His 1992 paper in Science, demonstrating that DNA can be used as a computing medium, introduced the field of molecular computing, which he has subsequently developed. Adleman and collaborators received the Association for Computing Machinery’s A.M. Turing Award for their RSA innovations. Adleman is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the AAAS. Elected 2006.

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Robert W. Hellwarth

Andrew J. Viterbi

Andrew Viterbi is creator of the Viterbi Algorithm, co-developer of CDMA cell phone technology and co-founder of Qualcomm. Viterbi is a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the IEEE Claude E. Shannon Award, the Marconi Foundation Award, the Christopher Columbus Award, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal and many others. Dr. Viterbi is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the AAAS, and a 2008 Laureate of the Millenium Technology Prize Foundation of Finland.