Jesse Russell
*Jesse Russell was born on this date in 1948. He is a Black inventor and IT entrepreneur.
Jesse Eugene Russell was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States of America, into a large African American family with eight brothers and two sisters. He is the son of Charles Albert Russell and Mary Louise Russell. His early childhood was spent in economically and socially deprived neighborhoods in the inner city of Nashville. As a teenager, he focused on athletics and not academics.
A key turning point in Russell's life was the opportunity to attend a summer educational program at Fisk University. Russell participated in this educational opportunity and began his academic and intellectual pursuits at Tennessee State University. In 1972, he received his Bachelor of Science Degree (BSEE) in Electrical Engineering. As a top honor student in the School of Engineering, Russell became the first African American to be hired directly from a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by AT&T Bell Laboratories. Subsequently, he became the first African American in the United States to be selected as the Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer of the Year in 1980. In 1973, Russell obtained his Master of Electrical Engineering (MSEE) degree from Stanford University.
Russell has helped shape the wireless communications industry direction through his leadership and perspectives on standards, technologies, and new wireless service concepts. His innovations in wireless communication systems, architectures, and technology related to radio access networks, end-user devices, and in-building wireless communication systems have fundamentally changed the wireless communication industry. Known for his patented invention of the digital cellular base station, Russell continues to innovate in the emerging next-generation broadband wireless communication technologies, products, networks, and services, as well as "Mobile Cloud Computing," which are shaping the forefront of the 4G Communication Industry.
He holds patents and pioneered the field of digital cellular communication in the 1980s through high-power linear amplification and low-bit-rate voice encoding technologies. He received a patent in 1992 (US patent #5,084,869) for his digital cellular base station design work. Although no one invented the cell phone, he was one of the key people to the modern cell phone. Russell is currently Chairman and CEO of incNETWORKS, Inc., a New Jersey-based Broadband Wireless Communications Company focused on 4th Generation (4G) Broadband Wireless Communications Technologies, Networks, and Services.
He has over 100 patents granted and thirty years of experience in Research and Development in pioneering technologies, such as the invention of the first digital cellular base station and fiber optic microcell utilizing high-power linear amplifier technology and digital modulation techniques.
This allowed the beginning of the digital cellular evolution, digital cellular standards, personal communications networks, and the emergence of "Mobile Cloud Computing" within 4G broadband wireless networks are only some of the accomplishments that have forged new directions for the wireless communication industry. The applications of his access technologies were one of the keys in expanding AT&T's interest in re-building its local access services business.
