Toby Berger (September 4, 1940 – May 25, 2022) was an American

information theorist Information is an abstract concept that refers to something which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the interpretation (perhaps formally) of that which may be sensed, or their abstractions. Any natur ...

Early life and education

Berger was born 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 ...

, to a Jewish family. He received a bachelor's degree 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

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

in 1962, and doctoral degree in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1968.

Career

From 1962 to 1968 he was also a senior scientist at

Raytheon Raytheon is a business unit of RTX Corporation and is a major U.S. defense contractor and industrial corporation with manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. Founded in 1922, it merged in 2020 with Unite ...

. From 1968 to 2005 he taught at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, and in 2006 joined the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. His primary interests were 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, ...

random field In physics and mathematics, a random field is a random function over an arbitrary domain (usually a multi-dimensional space such as \mathbb^n). That is, it is a function f(x) that takes on a random value at each point x \in \mathbb^n(or some other ...

communication network A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, messa ...

video compression In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression ...

, signature verification, coherent

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...

quantum information theory Quantum information is the information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory, and can be manipulated using quantum information processing techniques. Quantum information refers to both t ...

, and bio-information theory. Berger was elected a 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 ...

in 2006 for contributions to the theory and practice of lossy data compression. He was also an

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 ...

, a President of 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 ...

(1979), and a member of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, 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, ...

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...

, and

Tau Beta Pi The Tau Beta Pi Association (commonly Tau Beta Pi, , or TBP) is the oldest engineering honor society and the second oldest collegiate honor society in the United States. It honors engineering students in American universities who have shown a ...

. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 1987 to 1989. He received the 2002 Claude E. Shannon Award for his contributions to information theory, and the 2011 IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal. Berger was also a co-founder of

SightSpeed SightSpeed is a videoconferencing company, supplying VoIP and instant messaging app for Windows and macOS operating systems. The service allows people to make video calls, computer-to-computer voice calls, and calls to regular telephones, with ...

, a company which originated in his lab at

, which was acquired by Logitech in 2008. In 2017 he co-founded with his former student a Wi-Fi networks technology company, Cayuga Wireless, that is based on their multiple access research for multiuser physical layers.

Awards

* IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal (2011) * IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award (2006) * Member, National Academy of Engineering (2006) * Claude E. Shannon Award, IEEE Information Theory Society (2002) * IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000) * Frederick E. Terman Award of the American Society for Engineering Education for Outstanding Young Electrical Engineering Educator (1982) * Fellowship, Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China (1981) * Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship (1980-81) * IEEE Fellow (1977) * Guggenheim Fellowship (1975-76)

Death

Berger died on May 25, 2022, at the age of 81.Toby Berger obituary
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Selected works

* ''Rate-distortion theory: A mathematical basis for data compression'', Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971. * ''Digital Compression for Multimedia'', San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann, 1998.

References

External links

Cornell faculty web page

Quantum information research
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Toby 1940 births 2022 deaths American Jews Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science alumni Harvard University alumni American information theorists Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Cornell University faculty University of Virginia faculty Fellows of the IEEE People from New York City Raytheon Company people