Frank R. Kschischang is a Professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he has been a faculty member since 1991. He received a BASc degree (Honours) in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia in 1985 and a MASc and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto in 1988 and 1991, respectively. 

Professor Kschischang works on problems related to the efficient and reliable digital transmission of information over communications channels with error-inducing noise. He is a leading scholar in the theory and practice of error-correcting codes, particularly as they apply to fiber-optic communications. 

Professor Kschischang is the co-originator of the “factor graph,” a type of graphical model that represents probabilistic relationships among variables and enables efficient inference via the sum-product algorithm. Factor graphs are widely used in many areas of science and engineering, including in the decoding of capacity-approaching error-correcting codes, in the localization and motion planning of robots, in signal processing, and in a variety of machine-learning applications.  

He is also a co-originator of the so-called “Koetter-Kschischang subspace codes,” which provide a novel approach for reliable information transmission over data networks that employ random linear network coding. He is a co-inventor of “staircase codes,” an important family of error-correcting codes aimed at ultra-high-throughput transmission systems, most notably fiber-optic, that have been adopted into various international communication standards. He is the co-author of an award-winning series of papers proposing a method for information transmission via the nonlinear Fourier transform, providing an elegant way to combat the notorious capacity-limiting Kerr nonlinearity. 

Professor Kschischang is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), of the Engineering Institute of Canada, of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and of the Royal Society of Canada. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the 2010 IEEE Communications Society and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award and the 2018 IEEE Information Theory Society Paper Award. He received the Killam Research Fellowship in 2010, and the Hans Fischer Senior Research Fellowship from the Technical University of Munich in 2012. He received the Canadian Award in Telecommunications Research in 2012. Professor Kschischang received the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, one of IEEE’s highest and most prestigious honours, in 2023 “for contributions to the theory and practice of error correcting codes and optical communications.” 

Professor Kschischang has occupied a number of leadership positions within the IEEE Information Theory Society, including serving as President in 2010 and Editor-in-Chief the the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 2014 to 2016. He received the Society’s Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award in 2016. 

Professor Kschischang is a popular teacher who has received a number of awards for teaching, including five departmental teaching awards, the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering’s Teaching Award in 2006 and the Faculty’s Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award, “in recognition of superb accomplishment in teaching,” in 2019. He received the Faculty Award, a University of Toronto Award of Excellence, in 2010.