Martin Cooper (inventor)

Martin Cooper (born December 26, 1928) is an American engineer. He is a pioneer in the wireless communications industry, especially in radio spectrum management, with eleven patents in the field.^[2][3]

On April 3, 1973, Cooper placed the first public call from a handheld portable cell phone while working at Motorola, from a Manhattan sidewalk to his counterpart at competitor Bell Labs.^[4][5] Cooper reprised the first handheld cellular mobile phone (distinct from the car phone) in 1973 and led the team that redeveloped it and brought it to market in 1983.^[6][7] He is considered the "father of the (handheld) cell phone",^[2][6][8][9] and received the 2015 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for this work.

Cooper is co-founder of numerous communications companies with his wife and business partner Arlene Harris;^[10] He is co-founder and current Chairman of Dyna LLC, in Del Mar, California. Cooper also sits on committees supporting the U.S. Federal Communications Commission^[11] and the United States Department of Commerce.

In 2010, Cooper was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for leadership in the creation and deployment of the cellular portable hand-held telephone.