Bio: Larry Milstein joined the UCSD faculty in 1976, and is a former chairman of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department. He earned his Ph.D. in 1968 from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. From 1968-1974, Milstein worked on satellite communications in the Space and Communications Group of Hughes Aircraft Company, and from 1974-1976, he was on the faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY. An IEEE Fellow, Milstein has served on the Board of Governors of both the IEEE Communications Society and the IEEE Information Theory Society. He has been a consultant to both government and industry in radar and communications. He is also a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi.

Research: Professor Milstein is a theoretician, and does performance analysis and conceptual design of communication systems. Milstein began working on spread-spectrum while working for a defense contractor (see bio), at a time when the technology was primarily for military applications. Since 1989, commercial interest in spread-spectrum has soared, particularly with respect to code division multiple access (CDMA). In CDMA, users can all be on simultaneously, occupying the entire frequency band, by superimposing upon each data symbol a so-called spreading sequence. A competing multiple access technique, TDMA (time division multiple access), also lets each user use the entire spectrum, but sequentially (in short bursts). Milstein can also talk about the convergence of the computer and communications industries, and about what system designers are doing to offset the shortage of available bandwidth (e.g., going to higher frequency bands). Other areas of expertise include coding theory (including error-correcting codes), signal transmission, bandwidth considerations, and broadband wireless.