Marzetta, Thomas
Thomas Marzetta is Distinguished Industry Professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, ECE Department, and Director of NYU WIRELESS. Born in Washington, DC, he received the PhD and SB in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978 and 1972, and the MS in Systems Engineering from University of Pennsylvania in 1973.
Prior to joining NYU in 2017 he had three industrial research careers: petroleum exploration (Schlumberger-Doll Research, 1978–1987), defense (Nichols Research Corporation, 1987–1995), and telecommunications (Bell Labs, 1995–2017). At Bell Labs he directed the Communications and Statistical Sciences Department within the former Mathematical Sciences Research Center, and he was made a Bell Labs Fellow. He originated Massive MIMO, the most spectrally efficient wireless scheme yet devised and the foundation of the fifth generation of wireless. He is lead-author of the book “Fundamentals of Massive MIMO”.
Marzetta was elected a member of National Academy of Engineering in 2020. Additional recognition for his contributions to Massive MIMO include the 2025 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award, the 2017 IEEE Communications Society Industrial Innovation Award, the 2015 IEEE Stephen O. Rice Prize, and the 2015 IEEE W. R. G. Baker Award. He was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 2003 and he received an Honorary Doctorate from Linköping University, Sweden, in 2015.