Eight Ericsson researchers nominated for 4G award

Eight Ericsson researchers have been nominated for a European Inventor Award for LTE by the European Patent Office (EPO). The team is one of three nominees in the Industry category, which recognises “outstanding and successful technologies patented by large European companies”. The winner will be announced on June 17 at an awards ceremony in Berlin, Germany, that will be opened by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The eight Ericsson nominees include Erik Dahlman, Stefan Parkvall, Muhammad Kazmi, Robert Baldemair, George Jöngren, Henning Wiemann, Johan Torsner and Magnus Stattin. They have played a key role in the development of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile network standard that is powering the rise of the mobile internet economy.

Commonly referred to as 4G, it brings major improvements in terms of coverage and capacity, offering download and upload speeds many times greater than those achievable with earlier technologies.

Sara Mazur, Vice-President and Head of Ericsson Research, said: “This nomination is a great tribute to the remarkable work of our researchers and to Ericsson’s focus on research and innovation. With 25,000 research and development (R&D) engineers, an annual spend of USD 5 billion on R&D and 35,000 granted patents in our global portfolio, we see this as a great asset and a crucial part of our business.

“Ericsson invests continuously in research and is now laying the groundwork for the next generation mobile network, 5G. All of the nominated researchers are involved in analysis and development for 5G, extending the capabilities of wireless communication beyond the current LTE standard,” Mazur added.

The EPO undertook a year-long process to finalise the shortlist of 15 top inventions, based on thousands of patents filed at EPO offices across Europe. Launched by the EPO in 2006, the European Inventor Awards are presented in each of the following categories: Industry, SMEs, Research, Non-European Countries and Lifetime Achievement. An additional category – the Popular Prize – will be decided by a public vote.