IEEE Awards Booklet - 2018 - 14

2018 ieee medals

IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal
Sponsored by the IEEE Foundation

Thomas Haug and Philippe Dupuis
For leadership in the development of the first international
mobile communications standard with subsequent evolution
into worldwide smartphone data communication

he groundbreaking contributions of Thomas Haug and
Philippe Dupuis in developing the Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM) set the international
policy framework responsible for the success and continued advancement of international mobile communications. Haug's experience in developing the Nordic Mobile Telephone project,
a 1G analog system that was the first example of international
roaming among mobile phone users in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, helped pave the way to developing GSM.
Serving as chair of the Special Mobile Group of the European
Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations
(CEPT), Haug was tasked with finding a consensus on 2G digital technology for mobile communications. GSM would be the
solution. Dupuis led the Franco-German cooperation program
that demonstrated digital technologies were mature enough to
build the GSM system. Dupuis strongly supported using slow frequency hopping, which later allowed operators to manage the
huge growth of traﬃc with reduced impairments to the quality
of service. This enabled GSM to achieve performance equal or
superior to competing digital systems. Under Haug's leadership,

GSM allowed the first digital telephone call in 1992 between the
Finnish prime minister and the mayor of Tampere. His initiatives
also led to the inclusion of the SIM card and SMS text messaging. Dupuis is credited with moving GSM from concept to reality, and he followed Haug as chair of the Special Mobile Group.
Dupuis also promoted a smooth transition concept that ensured
the continuation of GSM as a foundation for 3G, 4G, and even
today's emerging 5G standards. Haug's and Dupuis' development
of GSM as a singular cellular standard to replace a plethora of
competing national standards has stood the test of time in providing seamless service improvements for successful worldwide
wireless communications.
Haug is the recipient of the 2013 Charles Stark Draper Prize from
the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and is a former chairman of the Special Mobile Group of the CEPT (now the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute), Sollentuna, Sweden.
Dupuis was awarded Knight distinction in France's National
Order of the Legion of Honor (1989) and is a former chairman
of the Special Mobile Group of the CEPT (now the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute), Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

Scope: For groundbreaking contributions that have had an exceptional impact on the development of electronics and electrical engineering or related fields.
14 | 2018 IEEE awards bookLET

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