Sergio Verdú (born

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, August 15, 1958) is a former professor of

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 ...

and specialist in

information theory Information theory is the mathematical study of the quantification (science), quantification, Data storage, storage, and telecommunications, communication of information. The field was established and formalized by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, ...

. Until September 22, 2018, he was the Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he taught and conducted research on information theory in the Information Sciences and Systems Group. He was also affiliated with the program in Applied and Computational Mathematics. He was dismissed from the faculty following a university investigation of alleged sexual misconduct. Verdu received the Telecommunications Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia,

, in 1980 and the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

in 1984. Conducted at the Coordinated Science Laboratory of the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

, his doctoral research was supervised by Vincent Poor and pioneered the field of

multiuser detection Multiuser detection deals with demodulation of the mutually interfering digital streams of information that occur in areas such as wireless communications, high-speed data transmission, DSL, satellite communication, digital television, and magneti ...

. In 1998, his book ''Multiuser Detection'' was published by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

Sexual harassment allegations and dismissal from tenured position

Title IX Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receiv ...

investigation by Princeton, made public in 2017 by the

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

, determined that Verdu had violated Princeton’s sexual- misconduct policy. Previously, Yeohee Im, a graduate student at Princeton, reported Verdu for sexual harassment. According to the Princeton Dean of Faculty, there were allegations that Verdú had also harassed others, but only the one student was willing to make a formal complaint. Verdú denied the findings of the investigation, stating: "The university advised me not to reply but I categorically deny that there were any advances or any sexual harassment." He was subsequently dismissed from Princeton University as of September 22, 2018, following further consideration by the university, which said that "an investigation established that Dr. Verdu violated the university's policy prohibiting consensual relations with students, and its policy requiring honesty and cooperation in university matters". Verdu appealed the decision in the District Court. According to the materials of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit: "Verdu states three theories under which Princeton discriminated against him: erroneous outcome, selective enforcement, and retaliation." The District Court dismissed Verdu's complaint.

Awards and honors

IEEE Fellow , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and ot ...

(1993) for contribution to multi-user communication and information theory. * Frederick Emmons Terman Award from the

American Society for Engineering Education American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, ...

(2000) *IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000) *Doctorate ''

Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

'' from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (2005) *Member of the

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 ...

(2007) *Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

(2014) *Corresponding Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering of Spain (2013) * Claude E. Shannon Award from the

IEEE Information Theory Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

(2007) * IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal (2008) *

NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing The NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing is awarded by the United States National Academy of Sciences, U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) "to recognize authors whose reviews have synthesized extensive and difficult material, rendering a signific ...

(2016) His papers have received several awards: *1992 IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award *1998 Information Theory Paper Award from the

*1998 Golden Jubilee Paper Award from the

*2000 Paper Award from the Japan Telecommunications Advancement Foundation, *2002 Leonard G. Abraham Prize from the

IEEE Communications Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office i ...

(together with Ralf R. Müller), for best paper in the field of communications systems *2006 Communications Society & Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award from the

and the

*2008 ''EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking'' Best Paper Award from the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) *2009 Stephen O. Rice Prize from the

(together with Angel Lozano and Antonia Tulino), for best paper in the field of communications theory *2011 Information Theory Paper Award from the

He served as president of the

in 1997. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the journal '' Foundations and Trends in Communications and Information Theory''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Verdu, Sergio 1958 births Living people People from Barcelona University of Illinois alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Information theorists Fellows of the IEEE Princeton University faculty Polytechnic University of Catalonia alumni