“This award means a lot to me. I have devoted my entire professional career to mobile communications research and chip design, and I have been fortunate to help shape this field from its early days to the connected systems we have today. I am all the more pleased to see this work recognized in this way,” says Gerhard Fettweis.
SEMECO spokesperson Prof. Gerhard Fettweis receives the 2027 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award, one of the highest honors bestowed by IEEE. The award recognizes his contributions to fundamental technologies for wireless signal transmission and their impact on the global wireless communications industry. Gerhard Fettweis combines fundamental research in wireless communications and chip design with practical applications. His work has also provided important impetus for technology spin-offs and research collaborations. SEMECO also benefits from this long-standing expertise: As the cluster’s spokesperson, Gerhard Fettweis applies this expertise to the field of medical technology, provides important impetus, and brings together key stakeholders to harness the technological possibilities of wireless communication and chip design for innovations in the medical sector. The award ceremony will take place on May 5, 2027, as part of IEEE Awards Week in New York City. The award is sponsored by Nokia Bell Labs.
About
Prof. Gerhard P. Fettweis was born in Wilrijk, Belgium. He studied electrical engineering at RWTH Aachen University, where he received his doctorate in 1990. Since 1994, he has held the Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications Systems at TU Dresden. Fettweis coordinated the Cluster of Excellence Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed). Since 2014, he has coordinated the interdisciplinary 5G Lab Germany at TU Dresden. In 2018, he also became the founding scientific director and managing director of the Barkhausen Institut. Since 2023, he is cluster spokesperson for SEMECO – Secure Medical Microsystems and Communications (funded by the BMFTR) together with Prof. Jochen Hampe. Fettweis is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering.
