Memorial Tributes Volume 21 (2017) / Chapter Skim
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JAMES L. FLANAGAN
JAMES L. FLANAGAN
Pages 108-117
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From page 109... ...
He grew up with his younger brother, Marion, on a cotton farm owned by their father, in sparse country seven miles east of Greenwood. He rode the yellow bus to school over unpaved rural roads, and did his homework by kerosene lamp until government acts in the mid-1930s brought electrification and telephone communication to rural areas of the United States.
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From page 110... ...
The MIT Years Completing the SM degree had depleted Jim's financial resources, but Professor Simrall again stepped in and not only offered him a position as instructor but also helped him successfully apply for a Rockefeller scholarship for doctoral study. When the time came to commence his doctoral thesis research at MIT in 1952, it was natural for Jim to turn again to the Acoustics Laboratory and Professor Beranek, and to join a project aimed at efficient coding of speech signals for voice communication.
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From page 111... ...
The following years continued to be heavily devoted to efficient digital coding and the transmission of speech, with a number of patents on adaptive quantizing and adaptive differential coding, which later aided a useful product for increasing the capacity of private line service. In 1984 Jim was promoted to director of Information Principles Research, with departments devoted to signal processing, speech research, acoustics, robotics, human perception, and linguistics.
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From page 112... ...
Technological Achievements in the Bell Labs Years Jim Flanagan's individual research included comprehensive modeling of basilar membrane motion in the inner ear, leading to useful engineering models of auditory signal processing. His research also provided the theoretical basis for experimental development of a physiological model of vocal excitation for speech production, which in turn provided a basis for advanced types of vocoders.
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From page 113... ...
. After three years of running the center, Jim was asked by Rutgers University president Francis Lawrence to take the position of university vice president for research (for 50,000 students)
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From page 114... ...
An outstanding judge of technical talent, he attracted and hired the best and the brightest individuals, and continually thought of ways to bring them to Bell Labs to work alongside the members of his department. A hallmark of Jim's managerial skills was the general feeling of the broad research community that every time one research challenge was solved by members of Jim's team, he was ready with a new set of challenges, thus illustrating his out-of-the-box thinking skills.
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From page 115... ...
Recognition of a Lifetime of Achievements Jim's work was blessed by widespread professional recognition. He received both national and international honors, such as the National Medal of Science, the IEEE Medal of Honor, election to both the NAE and the National Academy of Sciences, the LM Ericsson International Prize for notable contributions to telecommunications, the Marconi International Fellowship, and honorary doctorates from the University of Paris-Sud and the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
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From page 116... ...
Naturally with three sons, he refined and cultivated our interests. Many hours afield included copious training in marksmanship, safety, and the demanding responsibilities of personal conduct.
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