Frank R. Kschischang

Frank R. Kschischang is a Distinguished Professor of Digital Communication in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he has been a faculty member since 1991. He also served as the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies from 2015 to 2018, and is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario, Canada.

Education:

• B.A.Sc. (Honours) in Electrical Engineering, University of British Columbia, 1985
• M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, University of Toronto, 1988
• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Toronto, 1991

Research Interests:

Professor Kschischang’s research is centered on channel coding techniques and their application to wireline, wireless, and optical communication systems. His work spans error-correcting codes, LDPC codes, network coding, and iterative decoding algorithms. He has contributed foundational results in factor graphs, staircase codes, and nonlinear Fourier transform-based communication.

Scientific Awards:

• IEEE Fellow (2006)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2012)
• Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (2018)
• Canada Research Chair (Tier I, 2001–renewed 2008)
• Killam Research Fellow (2010)
• IEEE Information Theory Society Paper Award (2018)
• IEEE Communications Society & IT Society Joint Paper Award (2010)
• Canadian Award in Telecommunications Research (2012)
• University of Toronto Distinguished Professor of Digital Communication (2015)
• Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award, IEEE ITSoc (2016)

Advising & Grants:

Professor Kschischang has supervised a large cohort of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. His recent PhD graduates include Masoud Barakatain, Lei M. Zhang, Christopher G. Blake, Siddarth Hari, and Siyu Liu. Current and former group members are actively supported by NSERC, Canada Foundation for Innovation, and industrial partners.

Labs & Teams:

He leads an active research group within the Communications Group at the University of Toronto. The group focuses on theoretical and experimental aspects of coding and communication, with strong ties to the Optical Networks Laboratory and Institute for Optical Sciences. The lab maintains open-source software tools such as ZipperSim and ZMG for research and education.