2018 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 2018 award recognizes 7 new recipients who will join 308 past Bell Labs Fellows who have received the honor since it was first created in 1982. 

The 2018 Fellows include representatives from the Business Groups and Bell Labs, for their pioneering work in virtualized radio access networks architecture (including Cloud RAN), opening up new bands like CBRS with dynamic spectrum access, innovating new technologies in the domains of fiber, DSL and Fixed Wireless Access, groundbreaking development of cloud platforms and advanced automation, standards leadership (3GPP, NGMN, SCF, TM Forum), and a fundamental understanding of signal propagation in optical fiber and the nonlinear Shannon limit.  

In recognizing this year's recipients, Marcus Weldon, President of Nokia Bell Labs, stated, "the technical leadership and market impact of this year's honorees is truly impressive, and should inspire us all as we look to create the future of our company in an era where end-to-end 5G networks will be the essential foundation of new value creation for industrials and all our physical infrastructure systems." 

This year's honorees join the elite group of 308 past Fellows.  The 2018 Bell Labs Fellows are:

Anand Bedekar, Nokia, Mobile Network
For leading contributions to architecture and algorithms of radio access networks

Milind Buddhikot, Bell Labs
For groundbreaking research and innovations in technology and policy for dynamic spectrum access in mobile networks and for sustained entrepreneurial drive for disruptive technology incubation with significant industry impact

Ted East, Nokia Software
For outstanding sustained leadership and innovation in cloud architecture, solutions and advanced automation

René Essiambre, Bell Labs
For fundamental contributions to the understanding of signal propagation in optical fiber, including advances in establishing the Shannon limit of information transport over optical networks

Shavantha Kularatna, Nokia, Mobile Networks
For significant technical solutions developed for Nokia radio equipment, including multiband DPD and PIMC to enable the industry's first triple band radios

Padma Sudarsan, Nokia, Mobile Networks
For highly impactful sustained contributions in the unified Operations and Maintenance, Radio Access Network and Core, leading and innovating end to end wireless solutions

Willem Verbiest, Nokia, Fixed Networks
For innovating and leading development of ground breaking technologies, products and business for fixed access; from initiating ADSL research to turning mmWave technology into Fixed Wireless Access products and business