People

Professor Verdú's primary research interests lie at the heart of the mathematics of communication, as much of his work is centered on information theory, data compression and transmission, and signal processing. By investigating the theoretical limits of data compression and transmission systems, Verdú has made advances in the understanding of many different areas of information systems. His research has, generally, led him to derive many fundamental properties in regards to the capacity and minimum compression rates of different types of communication channels and information sources.

Prof. Verdú's doctoral research pioneered the field of multiuser detection, a digital communication technology that is particularly relevant to wireless communications. Problems often arise when non-orthogonal signals are transmitted to a receiver, as they interfere with one another and can make the original signals indecipherable. Verdú's work on multiuser detection, however, helps the receiver to overcome these difficulties by resolving the received signal into its noise, interference, and original signal components. His text, Multiuser Detection, based largely on his work on the subject, was published in 1998 by Cambridge University Press.

Before coming to Princeton University as an assistant professor in the fall of 1984, Verdú, a native of Barcelona, attended the Polytechnic University of Catalonia where he received his undergraduate degree in telecommunications engineering. He then made the move to the U.S. where he enrolled in the University of Illinois' Engineering school, performing his work on multiuser detection at the Coordinated Science Lab and ultimately receiving his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1984. In 2005 he received a doctorate honoris causa from his alma mater. Verdú has served as editor of numerous journals in the information sciences and currently serves as editor-in-chief of Foundations and Trends in Communications and Information Theory. In 1992 he was elected Fellow of the IEEE, and in 2007 he was elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. In 2007 he received the Claude E. Shannon Award, the highest distinction in information theory.

Professor Verdú holds a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and in PACM. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate level electrical engineering courses.