Who is John O'Sullivan, the Wi-Fi inventor?
John O'Sullivan is an Australian electrical engineer and radio astronomer who led the CSIRO team that developed key technology behind fast Wi-Fi. His team's work came from research into detecting signals from black holes.
In the 1970s and 1980s, O'Sullivan worked on radio astronomy, including searching for faint signals from exploding black holes. The mathematical techniques he developed for cleaning up signals later proved useful for wireless networking.
In the early 1990s, O'Sullivan and colleagues at CSIRO applied these techniques to solve the problem of radio signals bouncing around indoors, which caused interference and slowed data transmission.
The CSIRO patent
The team's solution was patented by CSIRO and became part of the IEEE 802.11 wireless networking standards. The patent became the basis for legal action against technology companies that used the invention.
CSIRO won legal settlements worth hundreds of millions of dollars from major companies, including some of the world's largest computer and phone makers. The money was used to fund further scientific research in Australia.
In 2009, O'Sullivan and his CSIRO colleagues received the Prime Minister's Prize for Science. The other team members included Terence Percival, Graham Daniels, Diet Ostry and John Deane.
Did You Know?
O'Sullivan was also named a recipient of the European Inventor Award in 2012 with the CSIRO team.