Julian J. Bussgang

Julian Jakub Bussgang (26 March 1925 – 16 September 2023) was a Polish-American mathematician, businessman and author.

He was most known for publishing the Bussgang theorem and for his work in the field of Applied Physics and communications.

He published several technical papers and held six patents.

Bussgang was born in Poland in 1925 into an assimilated Jewish family.

Bussgang was born in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) on 26 March 1925.

After the beginning of World War II, his family was able to emigrate to Palestine.

Thus, he completed his secondary education at a temporary Polish school in Tel Aviv, and at age 18 joined the Polish Second Corps commonly known as the Anders' Army after its commander Polish General Władysław Anders, which became a part of the British Eighth Army.

When the war in Italy ended, General Anders arranged for the qualified Polish soldiers to enter Italian universities and make up for the time they had lost while fighting during the war.

Thus, Bussgang enrolled at the Polytechnic University of Turin and completed the first year of engineering in an accelerated course.

When the Allies wanted Italy to return to normalcy, they decided to move the Polish soldiers out of Italy.

They gave them the choice of either going back to Poland or to England.

Bussgang decided to go to England, where he entered Polish University College, a temporary school created in order to qualify its students to take University of London exams.

Two weeks after the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939, Bussgang's family fled Poland for fear of religious persecution.

For the next decade, Bussgang was a refugee moving from country to country with his family.

After serving in the Polish Division of the British Army in World War II, he immigrated to the United States where he established a career in the field of signal processing, information theory, and communications.

In 1949, Bussgang received his US visa after waiting several years.

Later that year, he completed his B.Sc.(Eng.) from the University of London, taking his final exam in New York City.

Bussgang immigrated to the United States in 1949.

He went to MIT and received his MSEE in 1951.

His thesis was the Bussgang theorem first published as an RLE Report.

After his graduation, he began working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Later, alongside his work at Lincoln Laboratory, he enrolled at Harvard for a PhD in Applied Physics, which he received in 1955.

After he graduated, he joined the RCA Aerospace Division in Waltham, MA (later in Burlington, MA).

He started as an engineer but then was promoted first as Group Leader, then as Manager of Radar Development, and later became Manager of Applied Research.

He founded the high technology firm Signatron Inc. in 1962, which was acquired by Sundstrand Corporation in 1984.

After his retirement, Bussgang volunteered in Warsaw and Kraków with the International Executive Service Corps to help privatize Polish industrial firms.

In 1962, Bussgang left RCA and founded Signatron Inc., an electronics firm located in Lexington.

When he started thinking about founding Signatron in 1962, he started teaching at Northeastern University and continued until 1965.

He also taught a course at Harvard from 1964 to 1965.

Signatron developed high data rate, troposcatter (over the horizon) modems, HF modems and radio channel simulators.

After leaving RCA, Bussgang worked as a consultant and was involved with the Apollo program.

He was a consultant to Grumman Aircraft in the selection, simulation, and evaluation of Rendezvous Radar and Landing Radar for LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) for man's first trip to the moon.

Bussgang served as Associate Editor of Radio Science, from 1976 to 1978, and was a member of the Board of Overseers of the Museum of Science in Boston, from 1989 to 1995.

In 1984, he sold Signatron to the aerospace firm Sundstrand Corporation but was asked to stay with the company for three more years, so he retired in 1987.

Bussgang also served as a consultant to Honeywell, Hughes Aircraft, Philco-Ford, IBM, Arthur D. Little, Raytheon Company, RCA, and Sperry Univac among others.

After retirement, Bussgang volunteered twice in Warsaw and once in Kraków with International Executive Service Corps to help privatize Polish industrial firms.

In 2011, President Komorowski presented Bussgang with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland at The Polish Consulate in New York City for his activities promoting Polish-Jewish dialogue.

Along with his wife, Fay, he translated several books from Polish to English.

In 2011, President Komorowski presented Bussgang with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland at the Polish Consulate in New York City, for his activities promoting Polish-Jewish dialogue.

In May 2014, he was promoted to the rank of Captain (inactive) in the Polish Army.