Toby Berger, professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering, passed away on May 25, 2022. He was 81 years old.
Berger was a 2006 inductee of the National Academy of Engineering for his pioneering work in information theory, the mathematical study of fundamental limits of communication and data processing. He wrote one of the seminal textbooks on data compression problems and earned numerous awards and distinctions.
A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Berger’s notable honors include the Claude E. Shannon Award, the highest distinction of the IEEE Information Theory Society; the IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award; and the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal. Berger served as editor-in-chief of Transactions on Information Theory, IEEE’s flagship journal in this area, and also served as president of the IEEE Information Theory Society.
Berger joined the University of Virginia’s Charles L. Brown Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering in 2006, with the rank of professor emeritus from Cornell University. Berger began his career at Cornell in 1968 as an associate professor of electrical engineering. He was promoted to associate professor in 1972 and professor in 1977. Berger served as the J. Preston Levis Professor of Engineering from 1988 to 1998, and the Irwin and Joan Jacobs Professor of Engineering from 1998 to 2006.
Berger earned his B.E. from Yale University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.
Berger created a legacy through his renowned Ph.D. students including Richard Blahut, Ilan Ziskind and Raymond Yeung, legends in error control coding, image coding and network coding respectively. He graduated 41 Ph.D. students throughout his career.
An avid amateur blues harmonica player, Berger was known for educating his students not only in math and information theory, but also in the history of the Delta blues, dedicating his last class of each semester to share his enthusiasm for this art form.