Biography
Richard D. Wesel is a Professor with the UCLA Electrical Engineering Department. He joined UCLA in 1996 after receiving his Ph.D.in electrical engineering from Stanford. His B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering are from MIT. After graduating from MIT in 1989 he was with AT&T Bell Laboratories until he left to attend Stanford in 1991. His research is in the area of communication theory with particular interest in channel coding. In 1998 he was awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to pursue research on robust and rate-compatible coded modulation. He received an Okawa Foundation award in 1999 for research in information and telecommunications, and he received the 2000 TRW Excellence in Teaching Award from the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science. Since 1999 he has been an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications in the area of coding. He has authored or co-authored over seventy conference and journal publications. Professor Wesel currently serves as Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Research Interests
Professor Wesel's research interests are in communication theory and signal processing for communications systems. His research applies information theory, communication theory, and signal processing to analyze and design algorithms to improve the throughput, robustness, and reliability of communications systems. Prof. Wesel's current research interests include parallel concatenated codes, low-density parity check codes, and space-time codes. Specific applications include indoor wireless communication systems, wireless local loops, asynchronous digital subscriber lines, and digital video broadcast.

Awards and Recognitions

• 2000 TRW Excellence in Teaching Award

• 1999 Okawa Foundation Award

• 1998 NSF CAREER Award