Andrew Viterbi
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Andrew Viterbi (March 9, 1935) is an American computer scientist and businessman.
Andrew Viterbi was born in Bergamo, Italy and emigrated with his parents in 1939 to the United States as a refugee. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from MIT, and his Ph.D. in digital communications from the University of Southern California (USC).
He was later a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA and UCSD. He is the inventor of the Viterbi algorithm.
Viterbi was the cofounder of Linkabit Corporation, with Irwin Jacobs in 1968, a small military contractor. He was also the founder of Qualcomm Inc. in 1985. As of 2003, he is the president of the venture capitalist The Viterbi Group. In 2000, Viterbi ranked 386th on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, with an estimated worth of $640 million.
On March 2, 2004, the University of Southern California School of Engineering was renamed to the Viterbi School of Engineering in his honor following his $52 million donation to the school.
He is married to Erna Finci.