Martin Cooper

Biography

The “father of the cellular phone,” Martin Cooper is responsible for a technology that arguably has had the greatest impact on global society over the past 50 years. Mr. Cooper conceived, and led the effort to develop, a personal, portable radio handset that could be utilized as a normal telephone by anyone, anytime, anywhere. The result was the introduction of the first truly mobile telephone in 1973. Mr. Cooper also formulated the Law of Spectral Efficiency (Cooper's Law), which states that the maximum number of voice conversations or equivalent data transactions that can be conducted in all of the useful radio spectrum doubles every 30 months. This observation allows a prediction that technology can continue indefinitely to anticipate and fulfill the continued growth of the interconnected world.

An IEEE Life Fellow, Mr. Cooper is chairman of Dyna LLC, Del Mar, CA, USA.