Vic Hayes, Wireless Pioneer Award
Co-establisher and former chair, IEEE
Victor Hayes was born in Surabaya, Netherlands-Indies at that time, on July 31, 1941. He repatriated with his family in 1950 to the Netherlands and received his B.E. degree from the “HTS Amsterdam” in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1961. After military service in the Dutch Air Force, he joined Friden Holland, later called Singer Business Machines, as customer programmer for electro-mechanical billing and accounting machines. Eventually he played a key roll in engineering the first commercially available billing and accounting machine with integrated circuits.
In 1974 he joined Agere Systems, Utrecht, the Netherlands, when the group was still a part of NCR. He authored various NCR Corporate Engineering Standards on data communication protocols and represented the company in various standards bodies such as the Dutch Standards Institute NNI and the European Computer Manufacturers Association ECMA and representing those organisations at ISO and ITU-T.
Vic was one of the persons responsible for establishing the IEEE 802.11 Working Group for Wireless LANs in 1990. He chaired the group from its establishment until the end of his term in March 2000. With his Chairmanship, he convinced the European authorities of the need for radio spectrum for wireless LANs in Europe, resulting in the assignment of the 83.5 MHz in the 2.4 GHz area and 475 MHz in the 5 GHz area. In March 2000 he assumed the role of Regulatory Ombudsman in the Executive Committee of IEEE Project 802 (the LAN/MAN Standards Committee), serving in that capacity until March 2002, when the IEEE 802.18 Regulatory Technical Advisory Group was established.
In March 2001 Vic established and chaired the Regulatory Subcommittee within the Wi-Fi Alliance. This committee played a major role in preparations that resulted in the adoption of Resolution 229, and accompanying footnotes, at the World Radio Conference 2003, allocating 455 MHz of spectrum in the 5 GHz area for Wireless Access Systems including Radio LANS on a primary basis.
Vic is honoured to have been the recipient of a number of awards in the standards and regulatory area.
- In 1998 he received the IEEE Standards Medallion “for the internationalization of the IEEE 802.11 standard”.
- In 2000 he received the IEEE leadership Award “for 10 years of leadership and extraordinary dedication as chairman of the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN Working Group”
- In 2001 he received the IEEE Hans Karlsson Award “For dedicating a substantial part of your life to the advancement of technologies and their use in a wide area of segments, markets, and applications benefitting all our lives.”.
- In 2002 he received an award “in recognition of the outstanding leadership of the Regulatory Committee of the Wi-Fi Alliance” and in September 2003 he received an award “for outstanding leadership as Regulatory Chair and continued support of the Wi-Fi Alliance”.
- In 2004 he received the Vosko Trophy, a Dutch award “in recognition of his and his team’s work that lead to the success of Wi-FI (IEEE 802.11)” and The Economist, Innovation Award 2004 “for his work on wireless LANs”.
- In 2006 he received the IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award “for major contributions to the developments of standards in the field of electrical and electronics engineering”
- In 2007 he received the IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award for major contributions to the development of Standards in the Field of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
- In 2012 he received the George R. Stibitz Computer & Communications Pioneer Award
- In 2013 he was Induced at the Hall of Fame of IT
- In 2015 he was induced at the Hall of Fame of Consumers Electronics and
- In 2021 he was honored by the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada with the title of Doctor of Science, honoris causa
Vic retired from Agere Systems on October 1, 2003, and joined the Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Section Economics of Infrastructures as Senior Research Fellowship. He is co-author and co-editor of the book “The innovation journey of Wi-Fi – the road to global success” published November 2010.