IEEE Fellow Henry Samueli, cofounder of Broadcom, is the 2025 IEEE Medal of Honor Laureate. He is being recognized for his “pioneering research and commercialization of broadband communication and networking technologies, and promotion of STEM education.” The news was announced on 20 February in New York City at a dedicated press conference.
Samueli is the first recipient of the IEEE Medal of Honor since its monetary prize was increased to US $2 million from $50,000. IEEE sponsors the annual award.
Receiving the honor “is overwhelming when I think about all the past recipients,” Samueli said at the press conference. They include technology pioneers and IEEE Life Fellows Robert Kahn, Vint Cerf, and Mildred Dresselhaus.
“When I look at that list, it really is humbling to even be considered,” Samueli said. “I’m deeply honored.”
While an engineering professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the late 1980s, Samueli and one of his Ph.D. students conceived digital signal processing architectures for broadband communications chips and designed the world’s first chips for digital interactive television. After publishing their research, they decided to commercialize their product and in 1991 founded Broadcom in San Jose, Calif. They built the first digital cable set-top-box modem chipset, which served as the cable signal receiver.
Today Samueli is chairman of the company’s board.
“Through broadband, Henry Samueli helped revolutionize how the world is connected, fostered cultural and economic paradigm shifts of countless industries, and positively changed how we do everything today,” 2022 IEEE President and CEO K. J. Ray Liu said at the news conference. Liu is also the chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Raising the Prestige of IEEE Awards. “In addition, his prolific philanthropy has deeply impacted many lives for the better—from generous support of STEM education to a pledge to give away the majority of his money during his lifetime. These contributions are exemplary for technologists, modeling the impact they can have not just on the world they live in but for those who follow them.”
One engine of Samueli’s philanthropy, the Samueli Foundation, supports science, technology, engineering, and math education; integrative health; youth services; and social justice programs.
This year’s Medal of Honor, along with other high-profile IEEE awards, will be presented at the IEEE Honors Ceremony, to be held on 24 April in Tokyo.
A video of the news conference held on 20 February during which IEEE Fellow Henry Samueli, a Broadcom cofounder, was named the 2025 IEEE Medal of Honor Laureate.
Developing broadband technology
Samueli, who grew up in Los Angeles, was inspired to pursue a career in electrical engineering after building an AM/FM shortwave radio using a Heathkit electronics kit for a shop class, according to a 2021 Institute profile of Samueli. After graduating high school, he attended UCLA, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1975, a master’s degree in 1976, and a doctorate in 1980, all in electrical engineering. He then joined defense contractor TRW at its Redondo Beach, Calif., campus as a member of the technical staff.
While there, he also taught engineering courses at California State University, Northridge, and UCLA. In 1985 he accepted UCLA’s offer to become an EE professor. In addition to teaching, he supervised research programs in broadband communications circuits and digital signal processing. It was at UCLA that he and one of his Ph.D. students founded Broadcom.
Samueli took a leave of absence from UCLA to work at Broadcom full time as its CTO. He served in that position until 2018, two years after the company merged with semiconductor manufacturer Avago Technologies, also of San Jose.
Supporting STEM education
Samueli has made major societal, educational, and economic impact through his philanthropic work, donating more than $1 billion to organizations focusing on STEM education, underserved youth, and integrative health.
In 2000 he and his wife, Susan, donated $30 million to UCLA’s engineering school, which then was named after him. In 2019 the Samueli Foundation donated $100 million more.
“Through broadband, Henry Samueli helped revolutionize how the world is connected, fostered cultural and economic paradigm shifts of countless industries, and positively changed how we do everything today.” —K. J. Ray Liu
The foundation also gave $200 million in 2017 to the University of California, Irvine. The university used the gift for the construction and endowment of the Samueli College of Health Sciences, which focuses on interdisciplinary integrative health.
Samueli and his wife founded the Samueli Academy in Santa Ana, Calif., an underserved community in Orange County. The public charter school is for middle and high school students, some of whom live in foster care.
The Samuelis are members of the Giving Pledge, a group that consists of leading philanthropists who promise to give away the majority of their money during their lifetime.
Advice for the next generation of engineers
After the press conference in New York, Samueli joined 2025 IEEE President and CEO Kathleen Kramer, the organization’s Executive Director and COO Sophia Muirhead, and Liu, for a fireside chat. Samueli explained the role IEEE has played in his career, and he spoke to the next generation of engineers.
He joined IEEE when he was a UCLA undergraduate, he said, because he wanted to access the research of faculty and students from around the world.
“IEEE has been an invaluable resource for me throughout my career,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish anything without IEEE’s resources.”
Samueli, an eminent member of the IEEE–Eta Kappa Nu honor society, received the 2021 IEEE Founders Medal for “leadership in research, development, and commercialization of broadband communication and networking technology with global impact.”
When asked by Muirhead to advise current students and young professionals, he said: “Fasten your seat belts because the world is changing at a pace now that we have never seen before.
“When I finished my college career and was entering the engineering profession as a researcher in semiconductors and communications, we had so-called Moore’s Law, which is predictable,” he said. “Today I don’t know anybody who can say they know what artificial intelligence is going to bring us in five years, let alone in one year or two years.”
He encouraged students and young professionals to be adaptable and flexible, and not to worry about failing, because it’s to be expected.
To learn more about his career and philanthropic work, read IEEE Spectrum’s profile of him in the upcoming May print edition.
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