Looking beyond 5G

Farrokh Khatibi, ’81, MS ’84, PhD ’88, helped develop some of today’s most advanced communication systems, including 5G networks. Now he hopes to help future Case students do even more.

The engineer and physicist has endowed the Dr. Farrokh Khatibi Professorship, which will support next-generation telecommunications technologies in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering.

“Farrokh has been at the forefront of developing some of the most important advanced communications technology of the past four decades, and we’re extremely grateful that he wants to help ensure that his alma mater continues to produce the next generation of world-class engineers,” CWRU President Eric W. Kaler said in a press release.

An immigrant from Iran, Khatibi earned three degrees from Case Institute of Technology while studying and teaching on Case Quad for more than a decade. He joined Qualcomm in 1990 and helped develop a new cellular technology using Code Division Multiple Access, which evolved from 3G to 4G and eventually 5G. Before his retirement in 2023, he played leading roles in dozens of patents awarded to Qualcomm.

The university is in the midst of a campaign to endow 50 professorships, at a cost of at least $2 million each, and Khatibi helped push CWRU halfway toward that goal.

“My time at Case Western Reserve helped shape the person I am today and provided the foundation for my career,” Khatibi said in a statement. “The technology underlying wireless communications touches nearly every discipline, and I felt that endowing this professorship at this time was a critical component to the university developing a strong advanced communication program.”

A national search is underway for the inaugural Dr. Farrokh Khatibi Professor.