Richard E. Blahut is the Henry Magnuski Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the recipient of many awards including the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (1998), the Tau Beta Pi Daniel C. Drucker Eminent Faculty Award, and the IEEE Millennium Medal. He was named a Fellow of IBM Corporation in 1980 (where he worked for over 30 years) and was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 1990.