Biography
Prof. P. Vijay Kumar is an eminent academician in the field of Electrical Communication Engineering and currently serves as an Honorary Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. His distinguished career spans several decades, marked by foundational contributions to coding theory, communication systems, and information theory.

Educational Background
• B.Tech. and M.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and IIT Kanpur.
• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC), 1983.

Professional Experience
• 1983–2003: Faculty Member, Department of Electrical Engineering–Systems, USC.
• 2003–2021: Professor, Department of Electrical Communication Engineering, IISc Bengaluru.
• 2010–2017: Adjunct Research Professor, USC.
• 2018–2020: Visiting Professor, USC.
• 2021–Present: Honorary Professor, IISc Bengaluru.

Research Areas
• Quantum Error-Correcting Codes
• Codes for Distributed Storage
• Packet-Level Forward Error-Correcting Codes for Low-Latency Communication
• Streaming Codes
• Low-Correlation Sequences for Navigation Satellite Systems

Awards and recognitions/ Positions held:
• 1995: IEEE Information Theory Society Prize Paper Award.
• 2011/2012: IEEE Data Storage Best Paper Award.
• 1996: Co-authored pseudorandom sequences that became the short scrambling code for the 3G WCDMA cellular standard.
• 2021: Co-designed the IZ4 family of spreading codes used in the NavIC L1 civilian signal by ISRO.
• 1994: Senior Research Award, USC School of Engineering.
• 2013: Rustum Choksi Award for Excellence in Research in Engineering, IISc.
• 2017–2022: J.C. Bose National Fellowship, DST, Government of India.
• Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc).
• Fellow, Indian National Science Academy (INSA).
• Fellow, Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE).
• IEEE Fellow.
• 1977: President's Gold Medal, IIT Kanpur.
• 2008: IISc Alumni Award for Excellence in Engineering Research.
• Elected Fellow of IEEE, INSA, INAE, IASc, and TWAS.
• 2015: Vasvik Award for Information Technology.
• 2017: IEI–IEEE Award for Engineering Excellence.
• 2011–2021: J.C. Bose National Fellowship, DST.
• 2013–2015: Board of Governors, IEEE Information Theory Society.
• 2014: Plenary Speaker, IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT).
• 2015: Technical Program Committee Co-Chair, ISIT.
• 2019–2021: Chair, IT Society Conference Committee, IEEE Information Theory Society.
• 2024: Steering Committee Member, BITS Information Theory Magazine.
• IN200902994I4: Patent for Distributed Storage System and Method.
• IN309305B: Patent for Distributed Storage System and Method.
• US20110289351A1:Patent for Methods and System for Replacing a Failed Node in a Distributed Storage Network.
• 202041006792: Patent for Method and System for Generating Spreading Codes Based on Interleaved Z4-Linear Sequences for Navigation Systems.