Engineering Team Behind First Mobile Cellular Telephone to Receive Third Annual GlobalSpec Great Moments in Engineering Award

Original DynaTAC Engineering Team of 1972-1973 to be Honored

 Troy, NY – 10/8/2007 – The team of engineers in Applied Research at the former Communications Division of Motorola, Inc. whose work led to the creation of the first cellular telephone prototype will be presented with the 2007 GlobalSpec Great Moments in Engineering award on Wednesday, October 10.  This award celebrates the 35th anniversary of their breakthrough achievement. 

 Recipients are members of the 1972-1973 engineering team who embarked on a project in December 1972 that helped shape telecommunications history.  The project called for a three-dimensional model of a portable, hand-held telephone – including the creation of components small enough to fit into the handset – to be designed, assembled, tested and readied for demonstration in fewer than three months.   Their behind-the-scenes technical accomplishments resulted in the DynaTAC, a portable, hand-held telephone demonstrated to the world in April 1973, and the precursor of today’s cellular telephone.  This is the first public recognition of their accomplishment.

 “Thirty-five years ago, this talented and ingenious team of engineering professionals embarked on a project that would lead to an innovation so commonplace today that we rarely pause to reflect upon the extraordinary creativity it took to design and build it,” said GlobalSpec Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Killeen.  “The development of the DynaTAC, the world’s first hand-held, portable telephone, was really about creative innovation and the engineering ingenuity. GlobalSpec is honored to recognize this team for this accomplishment and its positive impact on people, science and industry.”

 GlobalSpec, the leading specialized search engine, information resource and e-publishing company for the engineering, industrial and technical communities, will host a breakfast and award ceremony recognizing the 35th anniversary of this event at Millennium Park in Chicago.  Killeen will present the award.

 DynaTAC Primary Designer Donald Linder will accept the award on behalf of the DynaTAC engineering team.  Also addressing attendees will be John Walls, vice president of public affairs for CTIA (The Wireless Association) and Tracey Koziol, corporate vice president of Mid and High Tier Devices for Motorola, Inc.

 The GlobalSpec Great Moments in Engineering award is presented annually to a person or group whose singular moment of engineering ingenuity produced a significant turning point for the application of technology and resulting benefits to people, science and industry.  The 2005 award was presented to NASA engineers from April 1970 responsible for saving the lives of crew members during the harrowing flight of Apollo 13, while the 2006 award was given to members of the Jason Jr. engineering team in honor of the 20th anniversary of the first video survey of R.M.S. Titanic.

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