Dr. Aria Nosratinia

Nosratinia has held this chair since September 2011, soon after it was established anonymously to support the research and scholarly activities of a faculty member to benefit the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.


“I am continually inspired by the positive, can-do spirit of our students, staff, and faculty. It is a blessing to work in such an excellent environment, and it is an honor to be appointed as an Erik Jonsson Distinguished Professor.”

Dr. Aria Nosratinia’s interests include the broad area of information theory and signal processing, with applications in communication theory and wireless communications.

“The convenience of wireless communication, from cellular telephony to a variety of other modes of wireless communication, is changing our lives for the better every day. Our continuing work on the forefront of the theory and practice of wireless communication builds the foundations for technological advances that can lead to economic growth and a better future.”

Nosratinia’s recent work in wireless communication spans both theoretical advances that resolve open problems in information theory, as well as practical methods in coding and communication leading to several granted and pending patents for the university. His recent work in spectrum sharing, an area mentioned as essential by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has led to discoveries outlining the theoretical limits as well as devising practical methods for spectrum sharing.

For his contributions in multimedia and wireless communications, he was elected an IEEE Fellow in 2010. This is one of the highest honors bestowed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a non-profit professional association with more than 400,000 members worldwide.

Nosratinia directs UT Dallas’ Multimedia Communications Laboratory, which investigates the theory and practice of information and coding and their application to address challenges in communications and signal processing. In addition to his work in wireless communication, Nosratinia is also well-known for his earlier research in image and video processing.

Before coming to UT Dallas in 1999, Nosratinia was a visiting scholar at Princeton University and a visiting professor and faculty fellow at Rice University.
He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Tehran and University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada, respectively; and a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign.