Prestigious Frontiers of Knowledge Prize Awarded To Prof. Jacob Ziv of the Technion

The Spanish BBVA Award in Information and Communication Technologies, totaling 400,000 Euros, is being awarded today in Madrid to Prof. Ziv for “his groundbreaking innovations in data compression”

The Frontiers of Knowledge Award of the Spanish BBVA Foundation, totaling 400,000 Euros, is being awarded today in Madrid to Jacob Ziv, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of the Technion’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering, for “his groundbreaking innovations in data compression and information theory.” The BBVA Awards recognize and encourage creative research in the basic sciences, biomedicine, ecology, information technology and economics, as well as artistic achievements in the arts and in the area of climate change. The awards are given for projects or research. The total for all the awards is 3.2 million Euros and they are given out annually in eight categories – 400,000 Euros per category.

Prof. Jacob Ziv won the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies for 2008. “Prof. Jacob Ziv’s groundbreaking innovations in data compression have had a deep and lasting impact on both the theory and practice of communications and information technology,” said the Foundation’s judges in their decision. “Ubiquitous in everyday life, Prof. Ziv’s contributions enable efficient storage and transmission of text, data, images, and video. Data compression technologies in computer memories, modems, software distribution and file compression techniques all rely on Prof. Ziv’s ideas and inventions. His seminal contributions to information theory have inspired generations of researchers and practitioners alike… This award recognizes the fundamental role of his work in creating technologies that widely and deeply impact on the information age.”

Lossless compression (compression without losing information), which was developed by Prof. Jacob Ziv and Prof. Abraham Lempel of the Technion, enables reproducing in its entirety information that has been transmitted or saved, thus ensuring that its quality is identical to that of the original. The Lempel-Ziv technique is the most widespread method of this kind of compression and is found in popular compression formats such as GZIP, GIF and TIFF.

Prof. Ziv, a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus in the Technion’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering, is a former President of the Israel Academy of Sciences, a member of the leading American and European scientific societies, the most important of which are the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Engineering and the US Society of Philosophy. He is also a recipient of the International Marconi Award, named after the inventor of the radio.

Prof. Ziv was asked by the Spanish Foundation to give his acceptance speech in Hebrew. The following is his speech:



Members of the Presidency, award winners, ladies and gentlemen!
     
 I am deeply moved by the honor that was bestowed upon me. I have been asked to deliver my thank-you speech in Hebrew, my native language.

The Hebrew culture had a "Golden age” here in Spain that peaked around the 10th century. Since that time, there is a deeply rooted Hebrew expression: "Dreams in Hispania -Suenios de Espania", derived from the rich poetic heritage of Yehuda Halevy, which is synonymous with imaginary dreams that almost never come through. Well, I was fortunate enough to have one wonderful dream turned into reality in Spain.

 I consider myself fortunate in contributing to the development of a relatively new and exciting branch of science, Information Theory that was established in 1948 by Claude E. Shannon. Information Theory has laid the foundations for modern communication technologies. In more than one way, the information age began in 1948 with the birth of Information Theory, following the invention of wireless transmission 53 years earlier by Guillermo Marconi.

 My own career in communication started when, as a young teen I was fascinated with a popular book on Guillermo Marconi.
 
I was naive enough to think that I could build my own transmitter following the sketchy outline of Marconi's transmitter. One day, when my parents left the house, I plugged my contraption into the power socket and I got quite a shock, but apparently I saw the light...
 
Ironically, I won the Marconi International Fellowship Award from the Marconi Society in 1995.

I am especially delighted and thankful that, in the midst of a world economic crisis, the foundation of a financial institution like BBVA, hand in hand with the Spanish national research council has opted to uphold the importance of the scientific spirit.

This conveys a supportive message to the world scientific community, and perhaps as important, may convince young brilliant students to choose an academic career in science.

 I would like to thank my lifelong friends and collaborators and in particular the late Aaron D. Wyner from Bell laboratories in the US and Abraham Lempel and Moshe Zakai, both from the Technion- my academic home for the last 38 years.  This award is recognition of their achievements as well.

I am in debt to all those who took part in my nomination and its approval. Their token of appreciation is as dear to me as this prestigious award.

Finally, I owe special thanks to my wife Shoshana and my family for their continuing support, including my latest grandson Dekel who, at six months, is conducting his own first experiments in communication.
Thank you.

Photo: Prof. Jacob Ziv

On the occasion of Prof. Jacob Ziv winning the prestigious 2008 BBVA Award in Spain, we made a film clip. It is posted on the internet on the PARD web site at:

http://pard.technion.ac.il/

You can find it in the left column. You should be able to save or quickly open this wmv file.