The Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award recognizes individuals who have shown outstanding leadership in, and provided long-standing exceptional service to, the information theory community. Gerhard Kramer is the recipient of the award this year for his service to the society, and for his contributions to the ITSoc’s Schools of Information Theory program and to the promotion of information theory and its applications through organization of conferences and workshops. 

Gerhard Kramer is Professor of Communications Engineering at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and since October 2019, the university’s Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Manitoba, and a doctoral degree from ETH Zurich in 1998. His career spans from industry, at Bell Labs, to academia, both at the University of Southern California and at TUM.

Gerhard Kramer has had a long and distinguished service record in the Information Theory Society. He was the society’s President in 2013. He has served (or will be serving) either as the general co-chair or the TPC co-chair of no less than four ISITs and an ITW. Gerhard Kramer was instrumental in co-founding and consolidating ITSoc’s global schools program. Since 2008, the Schools of Information Theory have become signature events, serving as an educational and outreach vehicle to over 2500 students in every continent. Gerhard Kramer was the Founding Chair of the North American School of Information Theory in 2008-2010, the Chair of European School of Information Theory in 2012, and has advised and supported 34 schools from Australia, to East Asia, India, Latin America, and Africa.