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Martin Cooper receives Draper Award

February 20, 2013 : BY Motorola

Motorola legend Martin Cooper, the leader of our team that developed the first mobile phone, has been named a recipient of the National Academy of Engineerings’ (NAE) Charles Stark Draper Prize, which is their highest honor. Mr. Cooper and a small group of other highly regarded engineers, were recognized in Washington DC for their groundbreaking research in cellular phone technology. This research led to the current era of mobile communications and mobile computing.

Iqbal Arshad, SVP, Global Product Development, Motorola Mobility had this to say:

Long before we messaged people in real-time, had instant maps for anywhere, or streamed movies on our smartphones, Martin Cooper and his team laid the foundations of mobile phone technology. When we look at everything that’s been accomplished thanks to the hard work of Martin and his team, we can’t think of anyone more deserving of this honor.

Martin Cooper
Here’s the backstory on Marty Cooper and his mark on mobile history:

On April 3, 1973, Cooper cemented his place in history by becoming the first person to successfully make a handheld cellphone call in public. At the time, Cooper was general manager of Motorola’s Communications Systems Division and leader of a team of engineers that had been working on mobile communication technologies. Standing on Sixth Avenue in New York City, before going into a press conference, Cooper famously placed this groundbreaking call using a Motorola DynaTAC – a device that weighed 2.2 lbs., had 35 minutes of talk-time and a battery life of 20 minutes, all of which was revolutionary at the time.

Widely regarded as the Nobel Prize for engineering, the Charles Stark Draper Prize was established and endowed by Draper Laboratory in 1988 to honor its founder, Dr. Charles Stark Draper, who pioneered inertial navigation. The award recognizes those who have contributed to the advancement of engineering and aims to help improve public awareness of the importance of engineering and technology.

Tagged as: cell phone inventor, draper award, martin cooper, marty cooper, motorola, nae

  • http://www.facebook.com/robertgh1 Robert Gilchrist Huenemann

    In recent months, I have seen several accounts in the press discussing Martin Cooper’s role in the development of the cell phone. I worked for Martin at Motorola Communications and Industrial Electronics (C&IE) from November 1959 to June 1960. Motorola was developing the latest in a series of two way radio products of ever smaller size. These developments were part of an evolutionary process that led eventually to the cell phone. I was fresh out of school and my contributions were of no particular significance.

    But let me tell you about something I observed on a daily basis at Motorola’s plant in Chicago. Motorola C&IE had two black employees. They tended an incinerator on the opposite side of the parking lot from the plant. They were not allowed into the building. Not to take a break or eat lunch. Not to use the rest rooms. Not to warm up in the middle of Chicago’s sub zero winters. And my fellow employees would take their breaks at the second floor windows overlooking that parking lot, and they would make insulting, racist comments about the two black employees.

    I went to human relations, and in the most non-confrontational way that I could muster I asked why Motorola did not employ on the basis of ability, without regard to race. And at my six month review, I was terminated.

    You don’t have to take my word concerning Motorola’s employment policies. In September of 1980, Motorola agreed to pay up to $10 million in back pay to some 11,000 blacks who were denied jobs over a seven-year period and to institute a $5 million affirmative action program, according to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

    I have a question for Martin Cooper. Marty, what did you ever do to challenge the blatant, toxic racial discrimination at Motorola?

    Robert Gilchrist Huenemann, M.S.E.E.
    120 Harbern
    Way
    Hollister, CA 95023-9708
    831-635-0786
    bobgh@razzolink.com
    https://sites.google.com/site/bobhuenemann/
    Extra
    Class Amateur Radio License W6RFW

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  • Anonymous98

    Robert,why:

    1.have you chosen to spray this 40-years old complaint all over the Internet? I have found at least 42 places where you have pasted this complaint word-for-word onto news websites that wrote an article about Dr. Cooper. Don’t you have an original idea?

    2.why are you complaining to news outlets? They can’t do anything and your unfounded allegations are not going to cause them to suddenly cover this topic.

    3. as you noted, Motorola did settle with black employees from this period that was before the landmark Civil Rights legislation of the 1960′s. These harms have been addressed and resolved, and as you know Motorola no longer behaves in this manner — like most other American corporations.

    So, please — for all of us — just shut up, already!

    Find something more useful to do than spraying decades-old discrimination allegations at Dr. Cooper in an attempt to sully the reputation of one of the great inventors of our time. You’re wasting everyone’s time with this useless one-man smear campaign.