Amos Edward Joel Jr. (March 12, 1918 – October 25, 2008) was an American

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, known for several contributions and over seventy patents related to telecommunications

switching systems In telecommunications, an electronic switching system (ESS) is a telephone switch that uses solid-state electronics, such as digital electronics and computerized common control, to interconnect telephone circuits for the purpose of establishing tele ...

Biography

Joel was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and spent portions of his youth living in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, where he graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

.Martin, Andrew
"Amos E. Joel Jr., Cellphone Pioneer, Dies at 90"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', October 27, 2008. Accessed October 29, 2008. He earned his B.Sc. (1940) and M.Sc. (1942) in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, where he worked on the Rockefeller Differential Analyzer (project headed by Vannevar Bush), and a thesis on functional design of relays and switch circuits, advised by Samuel H. Caldwell. Joel worked at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

(1940–83) where he first undertook cryptology studies (collaboration with

Claude Shannon Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, cryptographer and inventor known as the "father of information theory" and the man who laid the foundations of th ...

), followed by studies on electronic switching system that resulted in the 1ESS switch (1948–60). He then headed the development of advanced telephone services (1961–68), which led to several

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s, including one on Traffic Service Position System and a mechanism for handoff in cellular communication (1972). The latter invention made mobile telephony widely available by allowing a multitude of callers to use the limited number of available frequencies simultaneously and by allowing the seamless switching of calls from tower to tower as callers traveled. After 1983, he worked as a consultant to

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

, developing mechanisms for optical switching. Joel died in his home in

Maplewood, New Jersey Maplewood is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is an inner-ring suburban bedroom community of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's popula ...

, on October 25, 2008, at age 90.

Publications

*''Electronic Switching: Central Office Systems of the World'' ( IEEE Press, 1976) *With Robert J. Chapuis (eds.): ''100 Years of Telephone Switching (1878–1978: Part 1: Manual and Electromechanical Switching)'',

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

1982. Part 2: ''Electronics, Computers and Telephone Switching'' (

, 1990). *''A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: the Early Years, 1875–1925'' (

, 1985) *''A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System: Switching Technology, 1925–1975'' (

) *''

Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a telecommunications standard defined by the American National Standards Institute and International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T, formerly CCITT) for digital trans ...

'' ( IEEE Press, 1993)

Awards

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

state's outstanding patent (1972) * IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (1976) *Franklin Institute's Stuart Ballantine Medal (1981) *Columbian Medal (

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, 1983) *

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

(1981). * ITU Centenary Prize (1983) * Kyoto Prize (1989) *

Inventor of the Year (1989) * IEEE Medal of Honor (1992) * National Medal of Technology (1993) * National Inventors Hall of Fame (2008) * Marconi Society Lifetime Achievement Award (2009) *Wireless Hall of Fame (2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joel, Amos 1918 births 2008 deaths American electrical engineers Fellows of the IEEE IEEE Medal of Honor recipients Kyoto laureates in Advanced Technology MIT School of Engineering alumni National Medal of Technology recipients People from Maplewood, New Jersey Scientists from Philadelphia Scientists at Bell Labs People from the Bronx Jewish American scientists DeWitt Clinton High School alumni 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews Presidents of the IEEE Communications Society