Discover Our Alumni
Illinois Entrepreneurs
Photo Origin: Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University |
John Cioffi, Founder of DSL, Connects Illinois to the World John Cioffi made his mark in the field of electrical engineering by founding Amati Communications Corporations and producing the world’s first ADSL and VDSL modems. Cioffi graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1978. He continued his graduate education with a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1984. Cioffi’s early work was for a variety of companies, including Bell Laboratories and IBM. He founded Amati Communications in 1991, and in 1997 Cioffi sold the firm and its DSL technology to Texas Instruments. Cioffi has published over 100 technical papers and is an inventor named on over 100 patents in the communications industry. He is also the recipient of many awards, including the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (2010), the International Fellow United Kingdom’s Royal Academy of Engineering (2009), the International Marconi Fellow (2006), the United States National Academy of Engineering (2001), and IEEE Millennium Medal (2000). Cioffi continues to be active in the field of engineering. He is chairman and CEO of ASSIA, Inc, a California based company pioneering DSL management software. He is also serves on the Board of Directors of Alto Beam, Teranetics, and Clariphy. He recently retired after 25 years as the Hitachi Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. The University of Illinois honored him as an Illinois Outstanding Alumnus in 1999 and a Distinguished Alumnus in 2010. In 2010, he will also receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh. |
