Sergio_Verdú

Sergio Verdú

Sergio Verdú

Spanish information theorist

Sergio Verdú (born Barcelona, Spain, August 15, 1958) is a former professor of electrical engineering and specialist in information theory. Until September 22, 2018, he was the Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, 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.[1]

Verdu received the Telecommunications Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain, in 1980 and the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984. Conducted at the Coordinated Science Laboratory of the University of Illinois, his doctoral research was supervised by Vincent Poor and pioneered the field of multiuser detection. In 1998, his book Multiuser Detection was published by Cambridge University Press.

Sexual harassment incident and dismissal from tenured position

A Title IX investigation by Princeton, made public in 2017 by the Huffington Post, concluded that Verdú had sexually harassed one of his graduate students, a South Korean woman. According to the student, Verdú was required only to attend an 8-hour training session as a consequence. The student changed advisers and changed her research topic. A university spokesperson denied the claim that additional training was the only consequence for Verdú, stating that "penalties were imposed in addition to the required counseling", but did not identify what those penalties were. 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."[2][3] 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".[4]

Awards and honors

His papers have received several awards:

He served as president of the IEEE Information Theory Society in 1997. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the journal Foundations and Trends in Communications and Information Theory.

References

  1. [1]
    U. confirms Verdu's dismissal following misconduct investigation
  2. [2]
    Vagianos, Alanna (November 9, 2017), "Grad Student Says Princeton Prof Who Sexually Harassed Her Was Given Slap On The Wrist", Huffington Post
  3. [3]
    Flaherty, Colleen (November 13, 2017), "Scrutiny of Punishment for Professor Over Harassment", Inside Higher Education
  4. [4]
    Brown, Marcia (September 29, 2018), "U. confirms Verdu's dismissal following misconduct investigation", The Daily Princetonian
  5. [5]
    "Fellow Class of 1993". IEEE. Retrieved January 3, 2011.
  6. [6]
    "IEEE Fellows 1993 | IEEE Communications Society".
  7. [7]
    "Past Frederick Emmons Terman Award Winners". American Society for Engineering Education. Retrieved January 3, 2011.
  8. [8]
    "NAE Members Directory - Dr. Sergio Verdu". NAE. Retrieved January 3, 2011.
  9. [9]
    "National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected (press release)". National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on August 18, 2015. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  10. [10]
    "Claude E. Shannon Award". IEEE Information Theory Society. Retrieved January 3, 2011.
  11. [11]
    "IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal Recipients" (PDF). IEEE. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  12. [12]
    "IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award Recipients" (PDF). IEEE. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  13. [13]
    "Information Theory Paper Award". IEEE Information Theory Society. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  14. [14]
    "Golden Jubilee Paper Awards". IEEE Information Theory Society. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  15. [15]
    "The Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize in the Field of Communications Systems". IEEE Communications Society. Retrieved January 3, 2011.
  16. [16]
    "ComSoc & IT Joint Paper Award". IEEE Information Theory Society. Retrieved January 3, 2011.
  17. [17]
    "Best Papers: EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking". European Association for Signal Processing. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  18. [18]
    "The Communications Society Stephen O. Rice Prize in the Field of Communications Theory". IEEE Communications Society. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
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