“The Tech Challenges Were Extraordinary”; The Inventor Of The Cell Phone Tells His Story

Martin Cooper is an engineer, inventor, entrepreneur, and futurist. He is
known as the “father of the cell phone.” He led the creation of the world’s first cell phone at
Motorola—and made the first public call on it. Over nearly three decades at Motorola, Cooper
contributed to the development of pagers, two-way radio dispatch systems, quartz crystal
manufacture, and more.

A serial entrepreneur, he and his wife, Arlene Harris, have cofounded numerous wireless
technology companies. This includes Cellular Business Systems, SOS Wireless
Communications, GreatCall, and ArrayComm. Cooper is currently chairman of Dyna LLC
and a member of the FCC’s Technological Advisory Council. He was the first to observe the
Law of Spectrum Capacity, which became known as Cooper’s Law.

In 2013, Cooper became a member of the National Academy of Engineering from whom he
received the Charles Stark Draper Prize for Engineering. He was awarded the Marconi Prize
“for being a wireless visionary who reshaped the concept of mobile communication.” He has
been inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame and Wireless History Foundation’s
Wireless Hall of Fame. The Radio Club of America awarded him a Lifetime Achievement
Award in 2010.

He is a lifetime member of the IEEE, was president of its Vehicular
Technology Society and received its Centennial Medal. In 2007, Time magazine named him
one of the “100 Best Inventors in History.” He is a Prince of Asturias Laureate.

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