Jeffrey Reed, professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, recently was reappointed the Willis G. Worcester Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering by Virginia Tech President Timothy D. Sands and Executive Vice President and Provost Thanassis Rikakis.

Established in 1983, the Willis G. Worcester Professorship of Electrical and Computer Engineering was created to recognize a leading researcher in the field of electrical and computer engineering. The professorship appointment is for five years.

Reed has held the Worcester Professorship since 2005.

A member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 1992, Reed is an internationally known researcher in the areas of software defined radios (a radio with very little hardware and software performing many of the functions of the analog components of an old fashioned radio) and cognitive radios (radios that incorporate intelligence in the way they operate). He is co-founder of several companies that have leveraged Virginia Tech research, including Federated Wireless, Cognitive Radio Technologies, and PFP Cybersecurity.

He has served as director of the Mobile and Portable Radio Research Group, and founded Wireless@Virginia Tech in 2006. In 2010, Reed was the founding faculty member and interim director of the Ted and Karen Hume Center for National Security and Technology, a center whose goal is to create the next generation of leadership for the intelligence community.

Reed has advised national leadership on telecommunications policy issues, meeting with White House staff, congressional staff, and regulatory authorities on numerous issues related to wireless communications. His advisory work on the President’s Council of Advisors in Science and Technology Report to the President, “Realizing the Full Potential of Government Held Spectrum to Realize Economic Growth,” has led to reforms that will enable greater availability of spectrum for wireless communication systems.

He currently serves on a Department of Commerce advisory committee on spectrum issues.

During his time at Virginia Tech, Reed has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 140 sponsored projects totaling $63 million. with his personal share of approximately $11.5 million. He has authored and co-authored 94 journal articles and more than 130 peer-reviewed conference papers.

His most cited publication, “Overview of Spatial Channel Models for Antenna Array Communications Systems,” in Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers' (IEEE) Personal Communications 1998 has 875 citations. He has co-authored three books and has contributed to or edited 25 books. He is the sole author of the first book on software radio and recently co-authored a textbook on cellular communications.

Reed is a Fellow of the IEEE for his contributions to software defined radio, communications signal processing, and educational leadership. He has received several awards including the Wireless Innovations Forum’s International Achievement Award for his lifetime work.

Reed’s excellence in teaching is well known. He has developed or significantly revised three undergraduate and three graduate courses. He supervised 31 Ph.D. students and 47 master’s degree students to completion. He currently supervises 10 Ph.D. students and one master’s degree student.

Reed received his bachelor's degree, master's degree, and Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

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