2017 Bell Labs Fellows Announced
The Bell Labs Fellows Award recognizes and honors Nokia employees who have made outstanding, sustained R&D contributions to the company. It is the highest honor bestowed on members of the technical community. The 2017 award recognizes 7 new recipients who will join 301 past Bell Labs Fellows who have received the honor since it was first created in 1982.
Bell Labs Fellows are chosen by a rigorous selection process. Fellows candidates are sponsored by a Nokia executive following a history of both technical excellence and sustained critical contributions they have made to the company and the industry as a whole.
The 2017 Bell Labs Fellows have produced groundbreaking work in fields as diverse as network architectures and algorithms, access, acoustics, artificial intelligence, optical communications, radio technology and software algorithms. In announcing the names of this year’s recipients, Marcus Weldon, Bell Labs President, noted that in the 35 years that the Bell Labs Fellow award has existed, the Fellows have always been at the forefront of the research challenges of their day. “This year’s honorees continue this tradition,” he said, noting that, “we are on the cusp of a profound transformation in our industry, and society as a whole, as we look to enable the next industrial revolution. The work of this year’s Fellows will play a significant role in leading this change.”
Volker Hilt, Bell Labs
For sustained contributions with wide-reaching industry impact on network architectures, protocol design and networked systems.
Leo Mikko Johannes Kärkkäinen, Nokia
For leading contributions in mobile technologies and applications from acoustics to AI.
Mohammad R. Khawer, Nokia
For excellence in applied research and technology incubation in shared and unlicensed spectrum, radio platform architecture and product development impact and relentless energy and drive.
David T. Neilson, Bell Labs
For seminal contributions to the design and architecture of all-optical switch devices and networks.
Dragan Samardzija, Bell Labs
For creation of industry leading wireless solutions and seminal contributions from basic radio theory and algorithmic development, to detailed real-time implementation.
Randall Bruce Sharpe, Nokia
For significant technical leadership and contributions to help transform and revitalize the revenue capability of the access network from IPTV over legacy networks to software defined gigabit optical access networks.
Marina Thottan, Bell Labs
For sustained technical leadership and pioneering contributions to architectures, algorithms, and software platforms for the management and control of high speed IP/Optical networks and vertical network market segments.
