The Institute - March 2021 - TI-15

J. Guarrera Engineering Educator of the
Year Award from the Engineers' Council.
Grosz spent the majority of his career
in industry before retiring in 2012. He
also served as an assistant professor of
engineering at the University of New
Orleans for six years and an adjunct professor for two years, as well as an adjunct
engineering professor at Tulane University, also in New Orleans, for two years.
He designed systems for defense contractors Litton Data Systems, Omni Technologies, and the U.S. Naval Research
Laboratory. He was granted two U.S. patents-one for a method of transmitting
data through a ship's bulkhead and the
second for a NASA fiber-optic communication system for rocket engine testing.
Grosz has been an IEEE volunteer for
more than 35 years, serving at the section, region, and institute levels. He has
held almost all offices at the section level,
including chair, secretary, and vice chair
of the IEEE New Orleans Section, and he
has been a member of the IEEE Region 5
executive committee for 18 years.
He served on the IEEE Board of Directors as the 2016-2017 Region 5 director
and the 2019 vice president for IEEE
Member and Geographic Activities (MGA).
He was 2017 chair of the audit committee and cochair of the 2019 ad hoc committee on member engagement, which
included three subcommittees examining
member value and leading MGA efforts
in realigning IEEE's regions.
Grosz, a member of IEEE-HKN, has
received several recognitions including
an IEEE Third Millennium Medal, the
2008 IEEE Region 5 Outstanding Member Award, and a 1999 NASA Space Act
Award, which recognizes a technical
innovation of significant value to the
agency's activities.
An amateur radio operator, his call
sign is K5FBG.
JACOB ZIV

-J.G.
This article originally appeared online as
" S.K. Ramesh and Francis Grosz Run for 2022
President-Elect. "

IEEE Medal of Honor
Goes to Data
Compression Pioneer

EEE Life Fellow Jacob Ziv will
receive this year's IEEE Medal of
Honor " for fundamental contributions to information theory and
data compression technology, and for
distinguished research leadership. "
Ziv and Abraham Lempel developed two lossless data compression algorithms: Lempel-Ziv 77 in
1977 and LZ78 the following year.
The two procedures enable perfect data reconstruction from compressed data and are more efficient and projects in science, technology,
than previous algorithms. They engineering, and math.
allowed for the development of
Ziv has been a professor of elecGIF, PNG, and ZIP files.
trical engineering since 1970 at the
" The LZ algorithms were the first Technion Israel Institute of Technolmajor successful universal compres- ogy, in Haifa. He served as dean of the
sion algorithms, " says one engineer EE faculty from 1974 to 1976 and vice
who endorsed Ziv for the award. president of the school's academic
" These algorithms, and Jacob's affairs department from 1978 to 1982.
analysis of them, [have] formed the
Born in Israel, he began his engibasis for most subsequent work on neering career in 1955 as senior
universal algorithms. "
research engineer in the scientific
Ziv pioneered universal source cod- department of the Israel Ministry of
ing, a series of algorithms that com- Defense, where he conducted R&D
press data without needing to know in communication systems.
anything about the inherent inforHe moved to the United States to
mation. Such algorithms reduce the pursue a Ph.D. in electrical engineerrequired data rate needed to recon- ing from MIT. After he received his
struct images from undistorted as doctorate in 1962, he moved back
well as distorted data.
to Israel to rejoin the Ministry of
Ziv also contributed to the theory Defense and head its communicaof low computational complexity tions division.
decoding of error-correcting codes.
He returned to the United States in
He has received several recogni- 1968 to join AT&T Bell Laboratories,
tions including the 1995 Marconi in Murray Hill, N.J., as a member of
Prize, a 2008 BBVA Foundation Fron- the technical staff. He left there in
tiers of Knowledge Award, and a 2017 1970 to join the Technion.
EMET Prize-known as Israel's Nobel
The IEEE Foundation sponsors the
Prize-in the exact sciences category. IEEE Medal of Honor.
In 1997 he established the Israeli -J.G.
National Infrastructure Forum for
This article originally appeared online
Research and Development, which as " IEEE Medal of Honor Goes to Data
strives to promote R&D programs Compression Pioneer Jacob Ziv. "
THE INSTITUTE

MAR 2021

TI-15

https://www.engineerscouncil.org/ec/PastBanquets/program2012.pdf https://www.engineerscouncil.org/ec/PastBanquets/program2012.pdf https://www.ethw.org/Jacob_Ziv https://www.uno.edu/ https://www.ieee.org/about/awards/medals/medal-of-honor.html https://www.uno.edu/ https://www.ieee.org/about/awards/medals/medal-of-honor.html https://www.tulane.edu/ https://www.tulane.edu/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lempel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litton_Industries https://www.omnitechnologies.com/about-omni https://www.omnitechnologies.com/about-omni https://www.nrl.navy.mil/ https://www.nrl.navy.mil/ https://www.nasa.gov/ https://www.technion.ac.il/en/home-2/ https://www.technion.ac.il/en/home-2/ https://site.ieee.org/neworleans/ https://r5.ieee.org/ https://www.ieee.org/communities/geographic-activities.html https://www.gov.il/en/departments/ministry_of_defense https://www.ieee.org/communities/geographic-activities.html https://www.gov.il/en/departments/ministry_of_defense https://www.mit.edu/ https://eds.ieee.org/awards/millennium-medal-winners https://r5.ieee.org/awards/ https://www.ethw.org/Bell_Labs https://r5.ieee.org/awards/ https://history.arc.nasa.gov/awards_nasaspaceact.htm https://www.marconisociety.org/fellow-bio/jacob-ziv/ https://history.arc.nasa.gov/awards_nasaspaceact.htm https://www.marconisociety.org/fellow-bio/jacob-ziv/ https://www.frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/galardonados/jacob-ziv-2/ https://www.frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/galardonados/jacob-ziv-2/ https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israels-emet-prize-winners-accomplishing-the-impossible-500214 https://www.ieeefoundation.org/ https://innovationisrael.org.il/en/program/telem-national-infrastructure-forum-research-and-development https://innovationisrael.org.il/en/program/telem-national-infrastructure-forum-research-and-development https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/ieee-member-news/sk-ramesh-and-francis-grosz-run-for-2022-presidentelect https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/ieee-member-news/ieee-medal-of-honor-goes-to-data-compression-pioneer-jacob-ziv https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/ieee-member-news/ieee-medal-of-honor-goes-to-data-compression-pioneer-jacob-ziv

The Institute - March 2021

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