Distinguished University Professor Solomon Golomb has received the 2012 William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement, the highest honor bestowed by the research society Sigma Xi.

The Procter Prize has been presented annually since 1950 to an outstanding scientist or engineer known for effective communication of complex ideas. Past recipients include Margaret Mead, Jane Goodall and Michael DeBakey.

A specialist in communications theory, Golomb completed his Ph.D. while spending a year in Norway as a Fulbright fellow. He then worked as a senior research mathematician at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, later becoming research group supervisor and assistant chief of the telecommunications research section, where he played a key role in formulating the design of deep-space communications for lunar and planetary explorations.

Golomb, who joined USC as a professor in 1963, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

He received the USC Presidential Medallion in 1985, was awarded the titles of University Professor and Distinguished Professor in 1993 and 1998, respectively, and won the Shannon Award from the IEEE’s Information Theory Society in 1985.

He has received numerous awards and medals, as well as three honorary doctorate degrees. He was appointed the first holder of the Viterbi Chair in Communications in 1999 and holds an appointment in the Department of Mathematics at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Sigma Xi was founded in 1886 to honor excellence in scientific investigation and encourage a sense of companionship and cooperation among researchers in all fields of science and engineering.

The society, which has nearly 60,000 members in more than 100 countries, publishes the award-winning American Scientist magazine.

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