H. Vincent Poor, dean of Princeton University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, was awarded the 2016 John Fritz Medal by the American Association of Engineering Societies for his fundamental contributions to wireless technology.

The medal was established in 1902 and named after its first recipient John Fritz-a pioneer of iron and steel technology. Since then, it has recognized many famous figures in science, engineering and technology, and is considered to be among the highest honors in the engineering profession. Poor joins a list of past recipients including Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the wireless telegraph, and Claude Shannon, founder of the field of information theory.

“It is quite humbling” to be recognized alongside Bell and other giants of his field, said Poor. “It’s a recognition that I share with a great many students, colleagues and others with whom I’ve worked, as well as the institutions I’ve worked within, such as Princeton and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the agencies that provided the funding to make the work possible.”

Announcing the award, AAES said Poor was selected for his “outstanding contributions to the fields of modern communications and signal processing through their development, application and dissemination,” as well as his teaching, writing, and work with industry partners.

Poor is an internationally recognized expert in communications, networking and signal processing, with applications notably in wireless communications networks, social networks and “smart grid” (efforts to improve the efficiency and security of electric power distribution). He holds 14 U.S. patents and six international patents, which have contributed to an industry-wide effort to build the third and subsequent generations of mobile communications technology, among other wireless technologies.

Poor will accept the medal in April at the association’s awards banquet to be held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

He earned a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton in 1977 and joined the Princeton faculty in 1990. Among many honors, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001, the National Academy of Sciences in 2011, and the Royal Society-the United Kingdom’s national academy of science-in 2014.