Joseph L. LoCicero, noted contributor to the communications profession and prominent member of the IEEE Communications Society, has passed away.

 Joe received his academic training at the City College of New York (BSEE 1970 and MSEE 1971) and the City University of New York (Ph. D. 1977).  He performed his doctoral research under Donald L. Schilling (President of the IEEE Communications Society, 1980 – 1981). Upon receiving the doctoral degree, he joined Illinois Institute of Technology in what is now the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department.  He served for over 30 years as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, and Motorola Chair Professor.  He was Acting Chair of the ECE Department for two years.  He was one of the co-founders of the Wireless Network and Communications (WINCOM) Research Center.

His research interests focused on signal processing and communications, especially speech processing, video systems, wireless communications, low bit-rate voice, computer-generated holography for photonic switching, pitch detection, automatic speech recognition, nonlinear power amplifiers, and other topics.  With collaborators, he was awarded five patents, authored more than ninety articles, wrote three book chapters, co-edited Tutorial in Modern Communications and the IEEE Press Book Television Technology Today.  In recognition of these contributions to the profession and the IEEE Communications Society, he was awarded the Donald W. McLellan Meritorious Service Award in 1993, the Publications Exemplary Service Award in 1999 (subsequently renamed in his honor) and IEEE’s Third Millennium Medal in 2000.  He was a Senior Member of the IEEE.

LoCicero was also an ardent participant in the IEEE Communications Society.  For many years he served on the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors.  In addition to two terms as Member-at-Large, he also served as Director of Related Societies, Director of Journals, and four years as Parliamentarian.  Joe served two terms on the Nominations & Elections and Technical Committees Recertification Committees.  He was Editor-in-Chief and Publications Editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications, and served on the IEEE Transactions on Multimedia steering committee.  He chaired the Communication Theory Technical Committee and was Technical Activities liaison to the society’s Meetings & Conferences Board.  He also served on the Society’s Strategic Planning Committee and was a member and then Chair of the Bylaws Committee.

His many colleagues saw Joseph L. LoCicero as energetic, humorous, cheerful, a friend, and a life mentor.  He is sorely missed.