About

Theodore (Ted) S. Rappaport is the David Lee/Ernst Weber Chaired Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering and is a Professor of Computer Science at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He is also a Professor of Radiology at the NYU School of Medicine.  (Universities and positions)

Rappaport is the founding director of NYU WIRELESS, one of the world’s first academic research centers to combine wireless engineering, computer science, and medicine. Before launching NYU WIRELESS in 2012, he founded two large academic wireless research centers: the Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) at the University of Texas at Austin in 2002, and the Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group (MPRG), now known as Wireless@Virginia Tech, in 1990. Additionally, he co-founded the Virginia Tech Summer School and Wireless Symposium in 1991, the Texas Wireless Summit in 2003, and the Brooklyn 5G Summit (B5GS) in 2014.

He has advised or launched numerous high-tech companies in the wireless communications and computing fields, including Telephia (acquired by Nielsen), Motion Computing, Paratek Microwave (acquired by Research in Motion), Straight Path Communications (acquired by Verizon) and two university spin-out companies that developed some of the technologies now used in the wireless industry–TSR Technologies (acquired by Allen Telecom in 1993) and Wireless Valley Communications (acquired by Motorola in 2005). Specifically, TSR Technologies created one of the world’s first software-defined radios (SDR) which could intercept any cellular or paging transmission over the air. Law enforcement and cellular/paging companies used the TSR Technologies CELLSCOPE and PAGETRACKER products to rescue stranded motorists, design 1G and 2G networks, and capture cyber criminals including the most-wanted hacker, Kevin Mitnick, as documented in the Hollywood movie Takedown. Rappaport sold TSR Technologies to Allen Telecom and it became a critical piece of the world’s first emergency 911 cellular infrastructure product line. Wireless Valley Communications was a global leader in site-specific radio propagation design and network planning with hundreds of global customers. The Site Planner and Lan Planner product lines led in the build-out of the Wi-Fi and indoor cellular revolution.

Professor Rappaport’s research spans the fields of radio wave propagation and antennas for cellular and personal communications, wireless communication system design, analysis, and simulation, and broadband wireless communications circuits and systems. His research has influenced many international wireless standard bodies over three decades, and he and his students have received numerous honors and best paper awards and have invented widely-used measurement equipment, simulation methodologies, and analytical approaches for the exploration and modeling of radio propagation channels and communication system design in a vast range of spectrum bands for emerging wireless systems. He also invented the technology of site-specific radio frequency (RF) channel modeling and design for wireless network deployment–a technology now used routinely throughout the wireless industry. More recently, he conducted work that proved the viability of millimeter wave (mmWave) mobile communications for future broadband access, and this work has influenced the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and 3GPP/ITU to develop 5G wireless networks throughout the world.

Rappaport has served on the Technological Advisory Council of the Federal Communications Commission, assisted the governor and CIO of Virginia in formulating rural broadband initiatives for Internet access, and conducted research for NSF, Department of Defense, and dozens of global telecommunications companies throughout his career. He is one of the most highly cited authors in the wireless field, having published over 200 technical papers and over 20 books, and is a highly sought-after expert. He has over 100 patents issued or pending. As a faculty member, Rappaport has advised approximately 100 students who continue to accomplish great things in the communications, electromagnetics, and circuit design fields throughout industry, academia, and government.

In 2006, Rappaport was elected to the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), and to the Board of Governors of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) in 2008 and again in 2011. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the IEEE, was a past member of the board of the Marconi Society, and serves on the editorial boards of several academic and technical journals. He received the Marconi Young Scientist Award in 1990, an NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship in 1992, the Sarnoff Citation from the Radio Club of America in 2000, the Fredrick E. Terman Outstanding Electrical Engineering Faculty Award from the American Society for Engineering Education in 2002, and the Stuart F. Meyer Award from the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society in 2005. In 2008, he received the Industry Leadership Award from the Austin Wireless Alliance and the IEEE Communications Society WTC Recognition Award for outstanding achievements and contributions in the area of wireless communications systems and networks. The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) honored Rappaport with the Sir Monty Finniston medal in 2011 “for his outstanding academic and industrial contributions over almost three decades in the field of wireless communication.” In 2012, he received the William E. Sayle Award for Achievement in Education from the IEEE Education Society, and was named a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus from Purdue University in 2013. Rappaport and his students received the 2015 Donald G. Fink Prize, an annual award given to the authors of the best tutorial paper throughout the entire universe of IEEE publications, for their work on millimeter wave (mmWave) mobile communications for 5G.

In 2016, Rappaport’s Ph.D. student Shu Sun led the in-depth collaboration “Investigation of Prediction Accuracy, Sensitivity, and Parameter Stability of Large-Scale Propagation Path Loss Models for 5G Wireless Communications “ that spawned new channel models in 3GPP and ITU global standard bodies, and the paper was awarded the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (VTS) Neal Shepherd Propagation Prize.

In 2018, Rappaport received the Armstrong Medal from the Radio Club of America for demonstrating excellence and lasting contributions to radio arts and sciences. He was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2018, and was elected to the Wireless History Foundation Hall of Fame In 2019. Rappaport received the IEEE Eric E. Sumner field award in 2020 and was elected into the US National Academy of Engineering in 2020q. Rappaport is a life member of the American Radio Relay League, a licensed professional engineer in Texas and Virginia, and an amateur radio operator (N9NB).

Rappaport has over 100 U.S. or international patents issued or pending and has authored, co-authored, and co-edited over 200 papers and 20 books in the wireless field, including Wireless Communications: Principles & Practice (translated into seven languages), Principles of Communication Systems Simulation with Wireless Applications, and Smart Antennas for Wireless Communications: IS-95 and Third Generation CDMA Applications. He and his students have received many prize paper awards, including the 1999 Stephen O. Rice Prize Paper Award from the IEEE Communications Society for work on site-specific propagation, and the 2015 Donald Fink Prize for work that showed the viability of millimeter wave spectrum for 5G wireless networks.

Rappaport has also been an entrepreneur, encouraging his students to create companies from their research. In 1989, he founded TSR Technologies, Inc., a cellular radio/PCS software radio manufacturer that he sold in 1993 to what became CommScope, Inc. (taken private in 2011 by Carlyle Group and now owned by Keysight). In 1995, he founded Wireless Valley Communications, Inc., a creator of site-specific radio propagation software for wireless network design and management that he sold in 2005 to Motorola (NYSE: MOT).

Rappaport has testified before the U.S. Congress, served as an international consultant for the International Telecommunication Union, consulted for more than 30 major telecommunications firms, and continues to work on many national committees pertaining to communications research and technology policy. He is a highly sought-after consultant and technical expert. He received BS, MS, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 1982, 1984, and 1987, respectively, and is a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus of his alma mater.

Accolades for Ted Rappaport keynote speaking, from actual attendees:

“Best keynote I’ve ever heard in my 50 years of attending events.”

“Perfect blend of technology, policy and history”

“Great, Brilliant, Inspiring…BRAVO!”

“Wow, I was starting to geek out but actually understood it.”

“That was not just a keynote, that was a lifetime of inspiration in under an hour.”

“I could have listened to Dr. Rappaport all day long. I didn’t want it to end.”

Honors & Awards

• 1990 Marconi Young Scientist Award
• 1992 NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship
• 1999 IEEE Communications Society Stephen O. Rice Prize
• 2000 Sarnoff Citation, Radio Club of America
• 2002 Fredrick E. Terman Outstanding Electrical Engineering Faculty Award, American Society for Engineering Education
• 2004 Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering Alumni Award, Purdue University
• 2005 IEEE Vehicular Technology Society – Stuart F. Meyer Award
• 2008 IEEE Communications Society Wireless Communications Technical Committee recognition award
• 2008 Austin Wireless Alliance (AWA) Wireless Industry Leadership Award
• 2010 Joe J. King award at UT Austin
• 2011 IET Sir Monty Finniston Medal for achievement in engineering and technology
• 2012 IEEE Education Society William E. Sayle Award for Achievement in Education
• 2013 Purdue University Distinguished Engineering Alumnus
• 2015 IEEE Donald G. Fink Paper Prize Award
• 2015 IEEE Communications Society Howard Edwin Armstrong achievement award
• 2013—2016 Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Vehicular Technology Society
• 2017 IEEE VTS Neal Shepherd Memorial Best Propagation Paper Award
• 2018 Armstrong Medal, Radio Club of America
• 2019 Named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI)
• 2019 Inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame by the Wireless History Foundation
• 2020 Recipient of IEEE Eric E. Sumner Technical Field Award
• 2020 Named to 2020’s Highly Cited Researchers list from Clarivate Analytics
• 2021 Elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for contributions to the characterization of radio frequency propagation in millimeter wave bands for cellular
  communication networks
• 2021 Third Annual Tesla Gala honoree at Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe
• 2021 Named to the 2021 Highly Cited Researchers list from Clarivate Analytics
• 2021 Won the 2021 IEEE Global Communications Conference Best Paper Award for the Wireless Communications Symposium
• 2022 Ranked #26 in the world and #15 in the United States in the 2022 Ranking of Top 1000 Scientists in the field of Electronics and Electrical Engineering by Research.com
• 2022 Received NYU Research Catalyst Prize
• 2022 Named to the 2022 Highly Cited Research list from Clarivate Analytics in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• 2023 Computer Science Leader award from Research.com
• 2023 Electrical Engineering Leader award from Research.com
• 2023 Shu Sun, Theodore S. Rappaport, Mansoor Shafi, Pan Tang, Jianhua Zhang and Peter J. Smith won the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society 2023 Neil Shepherd Memorial Best Propagation Award for the paper “Propagation Models and Performance Evaluation for 5G Millimeter-Wave Bands,”
• 2023 Winner of the Globecom 2023 Best Paper Award (BPA) in the Green Communication Systems and Networks Symposium, H. Poddar, D. Shakya, T.S. Rappaport, M. Ying, “Waste Factor: A New Metric for Evaluating Power Efficiency in any Cascade”
• 2023 Named to the 2023 Highly Cited Research list from Clarivate Analytics
• 2023 Dr. Rappaport named one of the Top 10,000 Most Cited Researchers as of October 2023 according to the c-score metric on Scopus data provided by Elsevier
• 2024 Radio Club of America honors Dr. Rappaport by establishing The Dr. Ted Rappaport Academic Scholarship
• 2024 Texas A&M Hagler Fellow