Han Vinck - Personal Data

Digital Communications Group - Han Vinck

A.J. Han Vinck is a senior professor in Digital Communications at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, since September 2014. He is a member of the Digital Signal Processing group at the Electrical Engineering Department.

His interest is in Information and Communication theory, Coding and Network aspects in digital communications. He is the author of the book “Coding Concepts and Reed-Solomon Codes”.

2016 - 2026 Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa
2014 - president of the Leibniz foundation. This foundation supports research and education in the field of Information theory, Neurosciences and Biology.
2014 - 2023 Senior professor University Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

Positions in other universities and institutes

1974-1980 Ph.D. Student university Eindhoven, the Netherlands
1980 PhD, University of Eindhoven, the Netherlands (Syndrome Decoding of Convolutional Codes, supervisor: J.P.M. Schalkwijk).
1980-1985 assistant professor University Eindhoven, the Netherlands
1985-1990 associate professor University Eindhoven, the netherlands
1986 visiting scientist at the German Space Agency in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
1990-2014 Ordinary Professor in Digital Communications at the University Duisburg-Essen, Germany (Institute for Experimental Mathematics)
director (1997-1999) of the Post-Graduate School on Networking, "CINEMA".
chairman (1998-2001) of the Benelux Information- and Communication Society (WIC)
From 2000-2004 he was the chairman for the communication division of the Institute for Critical Infrastructures, CRIS.
In 2003 he was an adjoint professor at the Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
visiting professor (2010-2012) at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
He was invited (2011) to be consultant professor at the Harbin Inst. of Technology, Harbin, China.
He was a director of the Institute for Experimental Mathematics in Essen
2014-2015 adjunct professor at the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
2014-2015 honorary professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa

IEEE activities (a selection of)

In 1990 he organized the IEEE Information Theory workshop in Veldhoven, the Netherlands.
served on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Information Th. Society from1997 until 2006.
he is the founding Chairman (1995-1998) of the IEEE German Information theory chapter.
In 1997 he acted as Co-chairman for the 1997 IEEE Information Theory symposium in Ulm, (GER).
In 2003 he was elected president of the IEEE Information theory Society.
2008, he was a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Communication Society
2009-2015 chairman of the steering committee for IEEE SmartGridComm conference

Founded conferences

Professor Vinck is the initiator (1990) and organizer of the Japan-Benelux workshops on Information theory (now Asia-Europe workshop on “Concepts in Information Theory”)
the International Winterschool on Coding, Cryptography and Information theory in Europe (Essen, 1991 and 1993).
He started (Essen, 1997) and still supports the organization of the series of IEEE conferences on Power Line Communications and its Applications, ISPLC (the 20th ISPLC2016 will be in Bottrop).

Awards

2006 ISPLC Achievement Award: for his fundamental role in creating what is today the most important technical conference in the field of power line communications and for facilitating the transition of ISPLC to a fully financially and technically sponsored IEEE Communications Society conference

IEEE elected him in 2006 as a fellow for his “Contributions to Coding Techniques”

The SA-IEE annual award was presented to him for the best paper published in the SA-IEE Africa Research Journal in the year 2008.

best paper award at Chinacom 2013.

recipient of the 2015 Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award for outstanding leadership in, and provided long-standing, exceptional service to, the Information Theory community.
The Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciencesd awarded Babak Nikfar and Han Vinck the 2020 best paper award for a publication in the Journal JCN, Communications and Networks ( see http://www.jcn.or.kr/html )

Vol. 19, No. 1, February 2017. Authors: Babak Nikfar, A. J. Han Vinck

Title: Relay Selection in Cooperative Power Line Communication: A Multi-Armed Bandit Approach

Full professor in Digital Communications at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, since 1990, specialising in Information and Communication theory, Coding and Network aspects in digital communications.
Held positions of professional responsibility including the Director of the Institute for Experimental Mathematics in Essen, founding Chairman of the IEEE German Information Theory chapter, President of the IEEE Information theory Society (2003) and President of the Shannon, Leibniz and Gauß foundations for the stimulation of research in the field of Information theory and Digital Communications.
Received a number of accolades including the election by the IEEE as Fellow for his “Contributions to Coding Techniques”, appointed as Distinguished Lecturer for the Information Theory Society as well as for the Communications Society of the IEEE, the IEEE ISPLC 2006 Achievement award for contributions to Power Line Communications, the SAIEE annual award for the best paper published in the SAIEE Africa Research Journal in 2008 and the 2015 Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award for longstanding contributions to the IEEE Information Theory society.
Instrumental in the organisation of research forums including the IEEE Information Theory workshops and symposia Japan-Benelux workshops on Information theory (now Asia-Europe workshop on “Concepts in Information Theory”) and the International Winterschool on Coding, Cryptography and Information theory in Europe.
He is author of the book “Coding Concepts and Reed-Solomon Codes”.

Institute of Digital Signal Processing

Digital Communications Group