Andrea Goldsmith, a leader in wireless communications who has significantly shaped today’s cellular and Wi-Fi systems, has been inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame.
Goldsmith, dean of Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, was recognized by the Wireless History Foundation for her pioneering work in wireless communications. In announcing the award, the organization cited Goldsmith as “a giant in the wireless industry” who has been “a driving force for the advancement of wireless communications since the early 1990s.”
Goldsmith developed key techniques that help wireless networks adjust to changing conditions, improving data speed and reliability. The technology is essential to modern communication systems including Wi-Fi, 4G and 5G networks.
She also made significant discoveries in multiple-user communication, which allows devices to share wireless spectrum without interfering with each other. Goldsmith also introduced a method to reduce interference between signals, which dramatically improves wireless network performance. Goldsmith’s research has also improved the capacity of wireless networks, allowing them to handle more data. She determined the limits of how much data could be transmitted over time-varying wireless channels and extended this knowledge to more complex systems, like those that use multiple antennas (MIMO) and those that serve many users, including all Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
Along with colleagues Kaushik Sengupta and Yasaman Ghasempour, Goldsmith, the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has launched NextG, Princeton’s industry partnership program to develop next-generation communication networks. She has written four globally adopted textbooks and is a serial entrepreneur who founded the companies Quantenna and Plume Wi-Fi, formerly Accelera. Both companies played a significant role in advancing the technology and widespread use of Wi-Fi.
As a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Goldsmith advises the federal government on science, technology and innovation policy. She is the first woman to receive the Marconi Prize, considered the top honor in telecommunication, and is the recipient of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Education Medal, the Association for Computing Machinery’s SIGMOBILE Outstanding Contributions Award, and the 2018 Athena Lecture Award.
Goldsmith has made significant advances to increase diversity and inclusion in engineering. She founded the Board of Directors committee on enhancing diversity and inclusion at IEEE and established awards at IEEE and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) to recognize accomplishments of early-career women.
Goldsmith is an IEEE Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Engineering (U.K.), holds 38 U.S. patents, and has received numerous international medals, awards, and recognitions. She serves on the Boards of Directors of Intel, Crown Castle, and Medtronic. For her work on adaptive beamforming for multi-antenna Wi-Fi, Goldsmith was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2024.
The awards ceremony was held in Washington on Oct. 15 by the Wireless History Foundation, a non-profit formed to preserve the lessons of wireless research and technology. Besides Goldsmith, the foundation inducted Everett Dobson, Brad Horwitz, and William E. Kennard.
