Gerard J. Foschini

Gerard Joseph Foschini
IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal recipient
Born	(1940-02-28) February 28, 1940 (age 77) Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S.
Residence	New Jersey, U.S.
Nationality	American
Fields	Mathematics, telecommunications
Institutions	Bell Labs
Alma mater	Stevens Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisor	Lawrence J. Wallen
Notable awards	IEEE Fellow IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award (2004) IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (2008)

Gerard Joseph Foschini (born 1940 in Jersey City, New Jersey), is an American telecommunications engineer who has worked for Bell Laboratories since 1961. His research has covered many kinds of data communications, particularly wireless communications and optical communications. Foschini has also worked on point-to-point systems and networks.

Foschini received the B.S.E.E. degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the M.E.E. degree from New York University and a Ph.D. from the Stevens Institute of Technology. In December 1962, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories where he has worked since. He has also taught at Princeton University and Rutgers University.

Within the telecommunications engineering field, he is best known for his invention of Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (BLAST). This is a scheme for use in wireless communications which recommends the use of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver. By careful allocation of the data to be transmitted to the transmitting antennas, multiple data streams can be transmitted simultaneously within a single frequency band — the data capacity of the system then grows directly in line with the number of antennas. This represents a significant advance on current, single-antenna systems.