Duke’s Robert Calderbank Receives Marconi Prize

Robert Calderbank, the Charles S. Sydnor Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mathematics at Duke University, has received the 2026 Marconi Prize, an international award recognizing achievements in the field of communications and information technology.

Presented annually by the Marconi Society in honor of Guglielmo Marconi, a Nobel laureate and one of the pioneers of radio communications, the prize recognizes individuals whose work has advanced the theory and practice of communications. Calderbank was cited “for contributions to the theory and practice of voiceband modems, space-time coding and quantum error correction.”

Calderbank’s research, which sits at the intersection of mathematics and engineering, has played a central role in the evolution of modern communications systems. At the start of his career at Bell Labs, he developed voiceband modem technology that was widely licensed and incorporated into more than a billion devices. This work helped enable high-speed data transmission over telephone lines during the early expansion of the internet.

“Robert’s receipt of the ‘Nobel Prize for Communications’ is a testament to his gigantic technological accomplishments that have transformed not just the field of telecommunications, but more profoundly, how we communicate with one another across our globe,” said Jerome P. Lynch, the Vinik Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering. “His innate ability to bring people from different fields and disciplines together to pursue truly transformative ideas is extra special. Duke has been incredibly fortunate to have had his leadership driving forward some of our most impactful research and educational programs.”

Calderbank later helped lead a breakthrough in space-time coding, a method that improves the speed and reliability of wireless communication by correlating signals across multiple antennas. This technology remains a core element of 3G, 4G and 5G wireless standards, and Calderbank remains involved in ongoing global discussions to shape the protocols for 6G communications.

Prior to joining Duke in 2010, Calderbank was professor of electrical engineering and mathematics at Princeton University, where he also directed the program in applied and computational mathematics. Before Princeton, Calderbank served as vice president for research at AT&T, where he helped create a new type of research lab where masses of data generated by network services became a giant sandbox, which enabled fundamental discoveries in information science.

“This lifetime achievement award is an opportunity for me to remember all the colleagues at Bell Labs, Princeton and Duke who helped make me more successful,” Calderbank said.

His many honors include election to the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is an IEEE Fellow, AT&T Fellow and has won numerous awards including the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal and the IEEE Claude E. Shannon Award.