Theodore S. Rappaport is an active teacher, researcher, and entrepreneur. He received BSEE, MSEE, and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University in 1982, 1984, and 1987, respectively. From 1988 to 2002, he was on the faculty of Virginia Tech. He joined the University of Texas in 2002 as the William and Bettye Nowlin Chair in Engineering, and is the founding director of the Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) at UT’s Austin campus. He has over 100 US and international patents issued or pending and has authored, co-authored, and co-edited numerous books in the wireless field, including the popular textbooks Wireless Communications: Principles & Practice (Prentice-Hall, 1996, 2002), Smart Antennas for Wireless Communications: IS-95 and Third Generation CDMA Applications (Prentice Hall, 1999), and Principles of Communication Systems Simulation (Prentice Hall, 2004). He was recipient of the 1999 Stephen O. Rice Prize Paper Award from the IEEE Communications Society and the Stuart F. Meyer Award from the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society in 2005.

Dr. Rappaport currently serves on the Technological Advisory Council for the Federal Communications Commission, and has served on National Academy of Science panels pertaining to telecommunications research in the US. He also served as Technical Program Chairman for the IEEE Global Communications Conference in 2004. He is series editor for the Prentice Hall Communications Engineering and Emerging Technologies book series, and serves on the editorial board of International Journal of Wireless Information Networks (Plenum Press, NY) and the advisory board of Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing for Wiley InterScience. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, and is active in the IEEE Communications and Vehicular Technology societies.

In 1989, Rappaport founded TSR Technologies, Inc., a cellular radio/PCS software radio equipment firm that he sold in 1993, and in 1995, he founded Wireless Valley Communications, Inc., a pioneering creator of software products for the design, measurement, and management of wireless networks. He is a registered professional engineer in the states of Virginia and Texas, and is a Fellow and past member of the board of directors of the Radio Club of America. He has consulted for over 25 multinational corporations and has served the International Telecommunications Union as a communications consultant for emerging nations.

Rappaport received the Marconi Young Scientist Award in 1990, an NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship in 1992, and the Sarnoff Citation from the Radio Club of America in 2000. He received the James R. Evans Avant Garde award from the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society in 2002, the Frederick Emmons Terman Outstanding Electrical Engineering Educator Award from the ASEE in 2002, and the Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineering Alumni Award from Purdue University in October 2004. Ted is married and has three children.