Vladimir A. Kotelnikov

Vladimir A. Kotelnikov

Professor Vladimir A. Kotelnikov has been making fundamental contributions to his field for over 70 years, despite working for many years in relative isolation from the global engineering community.

Professor Kotelnikov led the formulation and proof of the sampling theorem, spearheaded the development of the theory of optimum noise immunity, and then applied his findings to both radar and communications. His ensuing work laid a theoretical foundation for decades of work to follow, and resulted in detector structures that were widely used.

As a leader of several institutions, including the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, the Research Institute of the Ministry of Communications, and the Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he created innovative communications equipment, jet technology, and devices for the control of rocket trajectories. He also improved radiotelegraphic lines, perfected code systems, and played a leading role in radar astronomy, designing planet radar equipment that led to close observations of planets.

The author of three books and many technical articles, Professor Kotelnikov founded the Russian Popov Society for Radioengineering, Electronics & Communications, and the Journal of Communication Technology and Electronics.

Vladimir A. Kotelnikov was born on 6 September 1908, in Kazan, Russia. He qualified at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in Electrical (Radio) Engineering in 1930, and as Doctor of Technical Sciences in 1947.

Since 1953, he has been an Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and is currently the Director Emeritus of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics. He is an advisor of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and a Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences.

An IEEE Life Fellow, Professor Kotelnikov is an active member of the Executive Committee of the IEEE Russia Section, and is involved in several IEEE societies. He has received numerous honorary degrees and many gold medals from the Russian Academy of Sciences and dozens of international awards and honors, among them the Hernand and Sosthenes Behn Prize from the IEEE, the Hero of Labor title, the Lenin Prize, the State Prize, and the Yon Karman prize from the International Academy of Astronautics. There is also an asteroid named in his honor.

Dr. Kotelnikov won the 2000 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal "For fundamental contributions to signal theory."