LOS ALAMITOS, 3 April 2019 – Adrian Stephens, a long-time contributor to IEEE 802.11, is named recipient of the 2019 IEEE Computer Society Hans Karlsson Award. He is being recognized “for exemplary leadership of the 802.11 Wireless LAN Working Group and technical contributions to the 802.11 family of standards.”
Stephens was the IEEE 802.11 chair (for 4 years) and vice chair (for 6 years). He was a member of the IEEE Standards Association Standards Board and its committees during this period. Adrian Stephens was also a senior principal engineer at Intel where his job focus was on developing IEEE 802.11 standards.
He coordinated Intel’s MAC proposal for IEEE 802.11n and chaired both the TGnSync and Joint Proposal teams that generated a proposal. He has been chair of various IEEE 802.11 TGn committees and was technical editor of the IEEE 802.11n (High Throughput) amendment.
He was managing chair of a group of companies that successfully proposed an initial draft for the IEEE 802.11ac (Very High Throughput, < 6 GHz) amendment. He was also technical editor for the 2012 and 2016 revisions of IEEE Std 802.11.
Stephens has over 20 years of product development and research experience working for industry and government. Before working for Intel, at Mobilian Corporation, he was a senior director of business development, specializing in Wireless LAN development and 802.11 standards work as well as editor of the BT SIG’s coexistence specification. Before that, he was at Symbionics Ltd (which became Cadence Design Services, then Tality) where he was head of software technology for wireless and multimedia design services. There he was responsible for developing a successful 802.11 MAC software licensed product. He was product architect for Bluetooth ™ and Hiperlan/1 developments, and technical editor of the HomeRF ™ SWAP-CA standard for two years—taking it to successful release.
Stephens received a B.A. (1st Hons) in natural sciences (1974) and a Ph.D. in physics (1981) both from Cambridge University, UK. He is a senior member of the IEEE.
The Hans Karlsson award consists of a plaque and a $2000 honorarium, and is annually given to the most outstanding team leader in the field of computer engineering standards, and recognizes outstanding skills and dedication in diplomacy, team facilitation and joint achievement in the areas where individual aspirations, corporate competition and organization rivalry would otherwise be counter to the common good.
The award will be presented at the awards dinner held on Wednesday evening, 5 June 2019 at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables, Florida during the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors meeting.
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