Claude Berrou

(2005) GET - Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne

"Cited for for his discovery of turbo codes, which opened new avenues of research that have led to modern advances in mobile telephony, satellite and radio communications"

Presented by: Francois Delattre, Consul General of France in New York

Claude Berrou was born in Penmarc'h, France, in 1951. In 1978, he joined the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST) de Bretagne, where he is currently a Professor in the Electronics Department. In the early 80's, he initiated the training and research activities in VLSI technology and design to meet the growing demand from industry for microelectronics engineers.

Some years later, Prof. Claude Berrou took an active interest in the field of algorithm/silicon interaction for digital communications. In collaboration with Prof. Alain Glavieux, he introduced the concept of probabilistic feedback into error correcting decoders and developed a new family of quasi-optimal error correction codes that he nicknamed turbo codes.

He also pioneered the extension of the turbo principle to joint etection and decoding processing, known today as turbo-detection and turbo-equalization. In addition to algorithm/silicon interaction, he currently conducts research in lectronics and digital communications at large, error correction codes, turbo codes and iterative processing, soft-in/soft-out (probabilistic) decoders, etc.

He is the author or co-author of 8 registered patents and some 60 publications in the field of digital communications and electronics. He has received several distinctions with Prof. Glavieux, amongst which the 1997 SEE Médaille Ampére, the 1998 IEEE (Information Theory) Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation, the 2003 IEEE Richard W. Hamming medal, the 2003 French Grand Prix France Télécom de l'Académie des sciences and the 2005 Marconi Prize.

Bibliographies

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Biography (in French)

IEEE Articles