UCLA Electrical Engineering Professor Asad Abidi has been elected into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), the highest professional distinction accorded to an American engineer. He has also been selected to receive the 2008 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid State Circuits.

The National Academy of Engineering Award

Professor Asad Abidi was honored for his fundamental contributions to the development of integrated circuits for wireless communication in metal–oxide– semiconductor (CMOS) technology used to fabricate microprocessors and digital signal processors, Professor Abidi is now among a select 2,217 members nationwide, along with 188 Foreign associates.

Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education. Established in 1964, the NAE shares responsibility with the National Academy of Sciences to advise the federal government on questions of policy in science and technology.

“I feel the key importance of my election into the Academy is that it highlights the ground breaking work my colleagues at UCLA electrical engineering and I have undertaken over the last two decades in CMOS radios,” Professor Abidi remarks. “It is this research that has really helped to defi ne a new industry, and that is my greatest reward. Every mass-produced wireless communication device today is in CMOS.”

Abidi has been an electrical engineering faculty member at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science since 1985,. Abidi’s research career has focused on research in CMOS RF design, high speed analog integrated circuit design, data conversion, and other techniques of analog signal processing. His work has led to new architectures in modern wireless devices, and a new way of designing the circuits that enable them.

“The work I conducted with my colleagues has always had the overarching theme of industry impact. We did not try to keep the work under wraps,” Abidi says. “We strove to innovate so that we could share the knowledge with the rest of the world. I’m proud to have been part of this philosophy of research.”

The IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid State Circuits

Shortly after receiving the NAE Award, Professor Abidi was selected by the IEEE Board of Directors to receive the prestigious 2008 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits for his “pioneering and sustained contributions in the development of RF-CMOS.”

This award was established by the IEEE Board of Directors in 1987 to honor an individual, or team of up to three, for outstanding contributions to solid-state circuits, as exemplifi ed by benefi t to society, enhancement to technology, and professional leadership. This is an IEEE-wide award and the highest in the fi eld.