Julian J. Bussgang

Julian Jakub Bussgang (26 March 1925 – 16 September 2023) was a Polish-American mathematician, businessman and author. He was most known for publishing the Bussgang theorem and for his work in the field of Applied Physics and communications. He published several technical papers and held six patents.

Bussgang was born in Poland in 1925 into an assimilated Jewish family. Two weeks after the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939, Bussgang's family fled Poland for fear of religious persecution. For the next decade, Bussgang was a refugee moving from country to country with his family. After serving in the Polish Division of the British Army in World War II, he immigrated to the United States where he established a career in the field of signal processing, information theory, and communications. He founded the high technology firm Signatron Inc. in 1962, which was acquired by Sundstrand Corporation in 1984.

After his retirement, Bussgang volunteered in Warsaw and Kraków with the International Executive Service Corps to help privatize Polish industrial firms. In 2011, President Komorowski presented Bussgang with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland at The Polish Consulate in New York City for his activities promoting Polish-Jewish dialogue.

Along with his wife, Fay, he translated several books from Polish to English.

Early life and education
Bussgang was born in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) on 26 March 1925. After the beginning of World War II, his family was able to emigrate to Palestine. Thus, he completed his secondary education at a temporary Polish school in Tel Aviv, and at age 18 joined the Polish Second Corps commonly known as the Anders' Army after its commander Polish General Władysław Anders, which became a part of the British Eighth Army.

When the war in Italy ended, General Anders arranged for the qualified Polish soldiers to enter Italian universities and make up for the time they had lost while fighting during the war. Thus, Bussgang enrolled at the Polytechnic University of Turin and completed the first year of engineering in an accelerated course.

When the Allies wanted Italy to return to normalcy, they decided to move the Polish soldiers out of Italy. They gave them the choice of either going back to Poland or to England. Bussgang decided to go to England, where he entered Polish University College, a temporary school created in order to qualify its students to take University of London exams. In 1949, Bussgang received his US visa after waiting several years. Later that year, he completed his B.Sc.(Eng.) from the University of London, taking his final exam in New York City.

Career
Bussgang immigrated to the United States in 1949. He went to MIT and received his MSEE in 1951. His thesis was the Bussgang theorem first published as an RLE Report. After his graduation, he began working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Later, alongside his work at Lincoln Laboratory, he enrolled at Harvard for a PhD in Applied Physics, which he received in 1955. After he graduated, he joined the RCA Aerospace Division in Waltham, MA (later in Burlington, MA). He started as an engineer but then was promoted first as Group Leader, then as Manager of Radar Development, and later became Manager of Applied Research.

In 1962, Bussgang left RCA and founded Signatron Inc., an electronics firm located in Lexington. When he started thinking about founding Signatron in 1962, he started teaching at Northeastern University and continued until 1965. He also taught a course at Harvard from 1964 to 1965. Signatron developed high data rate, troposcatter (over the horizon) modems, HF modems and radio channel simulators. After leaving RCA, Bussgang worked as a consultant and was involved with the Apollo program. He was a consultant to Grumman Aircraft in the selection, simulation, and evaluation of Rendezvous Radar and Landing Radar for LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) for man's first trip to the moon. In 1984, he sold Signatron to the aerospace firm Sundstrand Corporation but was asked to stay with the company for three more years, so he retired in 1987.

Bussgang also served as a consultant to Honeywell, Hughes Aircraft, Philco-Ford, IBM, Arthur D. Little, Raytheon Company, RCA, and Sperry Univac among others. After retirement, Bussgang volunteered twice in Warsaw and once in Kraków with International Executive Service Corps to help privatize Polish industrial firms. In May 2014, he was promoted to the rank of Captain (inactive) in the Polish Army. In 2011, President Komorowski presented Bussgang with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland at the Polish Consulate in New York City, for his activities promoting Polish-Jewish dialogue.

Bussgang served as Associate Editor of Radio Science, from 1976 to 1978, and was a member of the Board of Overseers of the Museum of Science in Boston, from 1989 to 1995.

IEEE
Bussgang was active in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – IEEE – [formerly IRE] from 1952. He served on the IEEE Life Members Committee and as a reviewer on various IEEE Transactions. He served on the Boston Section's Fellows and Awards Committee and was also the Education Chair. In 1989, he became Chair of the Boston Section of IEEE. He served in these positions until 1993. From 1995 to 2007, he was the Boston Section representative to the Central New England Council of IEEE. He was twice elected to three-year terms on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Theory Society. He was the nominator for the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Milestone and was given the regional professional leadership award by IEEE in 1995.

Books and papers
Bussgang wrote over twenty scientific papers and prepared two books that have not yet been published. One is a monograph with David Middleton on Truncated Sequential Tests, the other is Signal Detection and Estimation; Problems and Solutions with Nicolas Johnson. In 1994, his own story – Haunting Memories – was published as a chapter in ''We Shall Not Forget! Memories of the Holocaust. With his wife, Fay, he translated from Polish to English two volumes of The Last Eyewitnesses: Children of the Holocaust Speak'' – in 1998 and in 2005. These books, originally published by the Association of the Children of the Holocaust in Poland, contain testimonies by different authors highlighting experiences during World War II. In 2010, he translated from Polish to English the book, Polish Jew-Polish Soldier: 1939–1945, a collection of essays first published in the UK in 1945 by a Jewish chaplain of the Polish Army 2nd Corps.

Bussgang and his wife were the founders and for over twenty years, editors of Gazeta, a quarterly publication of the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies, now published by the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture.

Death
Julian J. Bussgang died at his home in Dedham, Massachusetts, on 16 September 2023, at the age of 98.

Awards and honors

 * 1973 – Fellow of IEEE
 * 1995 – IEEE-USA Regional Professional Leadership Award by IEEE
 * 2000 – IEEE Third Millennium Medal
 * 2005 – IEEE Boston Section Distinguished Service Award
 * 2011 – Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland

Selected publications

 * Chapter: “David Middleton” in L. Cohen, H. V. Poor, and M. O. Scully, Classical, Semi-classical and Quantum Noise, Springer, New York, pp. 1–7, 2011
 * J. J. Bussgang and S. A. Parl, chapter “HF Communications” in John G. Proakis ed., Wiley Encyclopedia of Telecommunications, vol. 2, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2003, pp. 946–958.
 * J. M. Zagami, S. A. Parl, J. J. Bussgang, and K. Devereaux Melillo, Providing Universal Location Services Using a Wireless E911 Location Network, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 66–71, April 1998.
 * J. J. Bussgang, E. H. Getchell, B. Goldberg and P. F. Mahoney, Stored channel simulation of tactical VHF radio links, IEEE Trans. Communications, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 154–163, Feb. 1976.
 * J. J. Bussgang, L. Ehrman, and J. W. Graham, Analysis of nonlinear systems with multiple inputs, Proc. IEEE, v. 62, no. 8, pp. 1088–1119, Aug. 1974.
 * J. J. Bussgang, P. Nesbeda, and H. Safran, Unified analysis of range performance of C-W and Pulse Doppler Radar, Proc. IRE, v. 47(10), Oct. 1959, also v. 48, Oct. 1960; Reprinted in D. Barton, Radar Equation, Artech House, 1974.
 * J. J. Bussgang and M. Leiter, Error Performance of Quadrature Pilot Tone Phase-Shift Keying, IEEE Trans. Communication Technology, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 526–529, August 1968.
 * J. J. Bussgang and M. Leiter, Error performance of differential phase-shift transmission over a telephone line, IEEE Trans. Communication Technology, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 411–419, June 1968.
 * J. J.Bussgang and D. S. O. Middleton, “Optimum sequential detection of signals in noise,” IEEE Trans. Info. Theory, vol. IT-1, pp. 5 – 18, Dec. 1955. Reprinted in S. S. Haykin, Detection and Estimation: Applications to Radar (Benchmark papers in electrical engineering and computer science; 13), Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, 1975.
 * J. J. Bussgang, “Crosscorrelation functions of amplitude-distorted Gaussian signals,” MIT-RLE Technical Report #216, pp. 1–14, March 1952, reprinted: A. H. Haddad, Nonlinear Systems, Benchmark Papers, vol.10, Halsted Press, 1975.
 * J. J. Bussgang, L. Ehrman & J. W. Graham, "Analysis of nonlinear systems with multiple inputs," Proc. IEEE, v. 62, #8, 1974.
 * J. J. Bussgang, “Some properties of binary convolutional code generators,” IEEE Trans. Info. Theory, v. 11, #1, 1965.