Presidential Lecture Series to Feature Armour College of Engineering Alumnus Martin Cooper

The seventh installment of the Presidential Lecture Series, hosted by President John L. Anderson, will be held on Monday, November 10, 2014. John W. Rowe, IIT Regent, Former Chairman of the Board, and Chairman Emeritus of Exelon Corporation, will introduce the lecture titled: The Birth and Death of the Cell Phone, presented by Armour College of Engineering Alumnus Martin Cooper (EE '50, M.S. '57). A reception will immediately follow the lecture in the Hermann Hall Gallery.

The story of the birth of the modern cell phone has been told many times as a triumph of technology. While that’s partially true, the real story is much more complex. It is a David versus Goliath, outliers versus the establishment story. It’s about how the course of personal communications history was changed by a small company in Chicago that had a vision and defended that vision against two powerful adversaries – and prevailed. And it’s a story of a revolution in communications that has only just begun. Martin Cooper was present at the beginning and will talk about that conflict, and about his vision of a future in which wireless connectivity profoundly, and affirmatively, changes the world.

RSVP by phone 312.567.5196, no later than November 3, 2014.