IEEE Life Fellow Andrew J. Viterbi, whose Viterbi algorithm is used in all four international standards for digital cellular telephones, as well as data terminals and digital satellite broadcast receivers, was presented with the IEEE Medal of Honor at the 2010 IEEE Honors

Andrew J. Viterbi, left, with IEEE Medal of Honor, presented by IEEE President Pedro Ray. photo by Luigi D'Astolfo.

Ceremony.

This year's event was held June 26 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. USC Professor Barry Boehm received the IEEE Simon Ramo medal at the same ceremony, which was attended by Viterbi School Dean Yannis C. Yortsos.

IEEE President Pedro Ray took the podium with Viterbi to present the medal, which represents IEEE’s highest award, which is sponsored by the IEEE Frank A. Cowan Fund and the IEEE Foundation. Click here to read an IEEE news release about the honor.

An IEEE Life Fellow, Viterbi holds memberships in the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received the National Medal of Science in 2008 from U.S. President George W. Bush as well as several IEEE awards and honors from other international organizations.

Click on the image to read the IEEE Spectrum biography of Dr. Viterbi

Viterbi received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and a doctorate from USC. He is currently president of the Viterbi Group, San Diego, Calif., and also holds the titles of Presidential Chair Visiting Professor at USC and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Technion, Haifa, Israel.

At the same ceremony, Ray presented the IEEE Simon Ramo medal to Barry Boehm, USC's TRW Professor of Software Engineering.

Barry Boehm, at lectern, with IEEE President Ray. photo by Luigi D'Astolfo.

Established in 1982, the medal commemorates the engineering contributions of Simon Ramo, former board vice chairman and executive committee chairman of TRW. Boehm's award was “for leadership in and innovative solutions to the integration of systems engineering and software engineering.”

Boehm, a longtime IEEE Computer Society volunteer, has served on the boards of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Computer magazine, IEEE Software, and other scientific journals. He also chaired the IEEE Technical Committee on Software Engineering, and was a member of the Computer Society’s Board of Governors.

Click here to read a IEEE release about Boehm's honor.

Below: a video of the Montreal award ceremony.