Abraham Lempel

Biography

Abraham Lempel is considered a pioneer in data compression. In 1977 and 1978, Dr. Lempel and his colleague, Professor Jacob Ziv, invented the first two iterations of the Lempel-Ziv (LZ) Data Compression Algorithm. Since then, the LZ Algorithm and its derivatives have become some of the most widely used data compression schemes, making the use of loss-less data compression pervasive in day-to-day computing and communication. With this compression method, information is transmitted and stored over the Internet and stored more efficiently on computer networks and other types of media storage.

Dr. Lempel’s academic career spans more than 40 years, having taught both electrical engineering and computer science at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, from 1963 to 2004. He has held the title of full professor since 1977 and served as head of the Technion computer science department from 1981 to 1984.

Dr. Lempel joined Hewlett-Packard Labs in 1993, and a year later, established HP Labs Israel, where he currently serves as director, overseeing the development of fundamental and universal image processing tools, as well as application-driven customization.

An IEEE Fellow, HP Senior Fellow and Erna and Andrew Viterbi Professor Emeritus, Dr. Lempel holds eight U.S. patents, and has authored over 90 published works on data compression and information theory. He has received numerous awards and honors from the IEEE and other industry organizations. In 2004, the IEEE Executive Committee and History Committee proclaimed the LZ Algorithm to be an IEEE milestone for enabling the efficient transmission of data via the Internet.