Richard Wesel

Richard Wesel

Associate Dean, Academic and Student Affairs

Richard D. Wesel received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1996. His B.S. and M.S. degrees, both in electrical engineering, are from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Wesel’s research is in the area of communication theory with particular interest in channel coding. His current research interests focus on new techniques for broadcast and multiple access, as well as the design of powerful low-density parity-check codes and turbo codes and their associated decoding algorithms to maximize data transmission over noisy channels. Applications from his research include wireless LANs utilizing multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver; satellite communications; asynchronous digital subscriber lines; digital video broadcast; optical multiple access and many other communication systems. His research group won first place in the operational systems design category at the 2006 Design Automation Conference for their demonstration of a new technique for uncoordinated optical multiple access.

Wesel has received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the Okawa Foundation Award. He served as an associate editor for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions on Communications in the area of coding from 1999-2005. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 conference and journal publications.

In the classroom, Wesel has received excellent marks from his students and was recognized in 2000 with the school’s TRW Excellence in Teaching Award. Wesel has also served on the school’s Faculty Executive Committee and Undergraduate Council. Most recently he was Vice-Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department.