Shlomo Shamai

Professor Shlomo Shamai (Shitz) (Hebrew: שלמה שמאי (שיץ) &rlm;) is a distinguished professor at the Department of Electrical engineering at the Technion − Israel Institute of Technology. Professor Shamai is an information theorist and winner of the 2011 Shannon Award.

Shlomo Shamai (Shitz) received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Technion, in 1975, 1981 and 1986 respectively.

During 1975-1985 he was with the Israeli Communications Research Labs. Since 1986 he is with the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, where he is now the William Fondiller Professor of Telecommunications.

His research areas cover a wide spectrum of topics in information theory and statistical communications. Prof. Shamai is an IEEE Fellow for contribution to Shannon theory as applied to the evaluation of the reliability of communication channels and a member of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI).

Awards

 * 1999 van der Pol Gold Medal of URSI
 * 2000 co-recipient of the IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award
 * 2003 Joint IT/COM Societies Paper Award
 * 2004 Joint IT/COM Societies Paper Award
 * 2007 Information Theory Society Paper Award
 * 2009 The European Commission FP7, Network of Excellence in Wireless COMmunications (NEWCOM++) Best Paper Award
 * 2010 Thomson Reuters Award for International Excellence in Scientific Research
 * 2011 Claude E. Shannon Award from the IEEE Information Theory Society
 * 2014 Rothschild Prize in Mathematics/Computer Sciences and Engineering
 * 2017 IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal

He is also the recipient of the 1985 Alon Grant for distinguished young scientists and the 2000 Technion Henry Taub Prize for Excellence in Research. He has served as Associate Editor for the Shannon Theory of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, and has also served on the Board of Governors of the Information Theory Society.

In 2013, Shamai was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to information theory for wireless communication technology.