Jim K. Omura

Biography

As a university professor, corporate leader and consultant, Dr. Jim K. Omura has been responsible for the theoretical underpinning and application of several benchmark technologies for communications systems and data networks. During his tenure as a professor of electrical engineering at University of California, Los Angeles, he co-authored the textbook “Principles of Digital Communications and Coding” with Andrew Viterbi and designed several communication systems emphasizing spread spectrum communications. He then co-founded Cylink Corporation in Sunnyvale, California, where he and his team developed the first commercial 1024-bit public key encryption chip used to secure large, commercial data networks. His designs for spread spectrum data radios formed the basis for the development of spread spectrum cordless telephones licensed for commercial applications and were precursors to today’s widely used WiFi wireless-access radios.

Most recently, Dr. Omura has served as Technology Strategist for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in San Francisco and as an advisor to several companies in the wireless communications industry.

An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Omura is former chairman of the San Francisco Section of the IEEE Information Theory Society (ITS), former secretary and a former member of the board of governors of the IEEE ITS. From 1973-75, he was editor of the IEEE Newsletter of the IEEE ITS. He is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Jim K. Omura was awarded the 2005 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal “For contributions to the theory of communications systems and the commercial applications of spread spectrum radios and public key cryptography”