Prof. Yaakov Ziv received the second most important Nobel Prize in Madrid this week

The Spanish BBVA award, in the amount of 400 euros, was given this week in Madrid to Professor Ziv in the field of information technology for "his groundbreaking inventions in the field of information compression"

A few months after his candidacy was announced This week Emeritus Research Professor Yaakov Ziv from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion received the Frontiers of Knowledge Award of the Spanish BBVA Foundation, in the amount of 400 thousand euros. The prize was awarded to Prof. Ziv for "his groundbreaking inventions in the field of information compression and information theory". The BBVA Foundation awards recognize and are intended to encourage research and creativity in the basic sciences, biomedicine, environment, information technologies and economics, as well as creative achievements in the arts and in the field of climate change. The awards are given for projects or research works. The total prizes - 3.2 million euros, and they are distributed annually in eight categories - 400,000 euros in each category.

Professor Yaakov Ziv won the Frontiers of Knowledge award in the field of information and communication technologies for 2008. "Yakov Ziv's groundbreaking inventions in information compression have profound and lasting implications for the world of communication and information technologies, both in theory and in practice," stated the decision of the fund's judges. "Professor Ziv's contribution, evident in every aspect of our daily lives, enables the efficient storage and transmission of text, data, images and video. Information compression technologies in computer memories, modems, distribution of software and files - all these are currently based on the ideas and inventions of Professor Ziv. His pioneering contributions to information theory motivated and guided generations of people in academia and industry. The award is an expression of recognition for his central role in creating technologies that have a profound and extensive impact on the information age."

lossless compression, or "compression without loss of information", developed by professors Yaakov Ziv and Abraham Lampel from the Technion, means that the transmitted/saved information can be restored in its entirety, so that its quality will be the same as the original. The Lampel-Ziv technique is the most common method for such compression, and is found in popular compression formats such as GZIP, GIF and TIFF.

Professor Ziv, Emeritus Research Professor in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion, former President of the Israel Academy of Sciences, member of leading American and European scientific societies, primarily the American National Academy of Sciences, the American National Academy of Engineering and the American Philosophical Society, and winner of the Marconi Prize named after the inventor of radio.

Below is the speech that was delivered in Hebrew.

Members of the President's Table, my fellow winners, ladies and gentlemen!

It is a great honor for me to receive this award. I was asked to say the words of thanks in Hebrew.
Hebrew culture was awarded a "Golden Age" in Spain that reached its peak in the tenth century AD, and since then the concept has been established: "Dreams in Isfamia" - Espania Suenios de derived from the rich heritage of Hebrew poetry of Yehuda Halevi, which means "magical dreams that almost never come true". I was lucky, and my dream became a reality in Spain.

I was privileged to be among the contributors to the development of a new and exciting scientific branch: information theory, which began in 1948 and was founded by Claude Shannon. Information theory laid the foundations for modern communication technologies. In a number of ways, today's information age began in 1948 with the birth of information theory, which was accompanied by the invention of wireless communication 53 years earlier, by Giuliermo Marconi.

My involvement in the media began when I was still a teenager. My imagination was ignited after reading a book about Marconi's work. In my naivety I decided that I could build my own wireless transmitter if I only followed what was said in the concise description of Marconi's transmitter. One day, when my parents were away from home, I connected my equipment to the electrical grid and received an electric shock...which opened my eyes to the future... -National on behalf of the Marconi Society in 1995.
I am especially grateful that in the midst of a global economic crisis, a fund of a major financial institution such as BBVA together with the Spanish National Research Council were able to miraculously raise the importance of scientific research.
This is an expression of support for the global science community, and furthermore, it is a message and encouragement to outstanding students at the beginning of their career, to choose an academic career in the sciences.

I would like to thank my friends and research partners for many years, and especially Aaron Wiener (may his memory be blessed) from BELL Laboratories in the USA, and Abraham Lampel and Moshe Zakai, both from the Technion - my academic home for the past 38 years. This award is also a recognition of their achievements.

I feel an obligation to all those who took part in the proposal of my candidacy and its approval. Your words of appreciation flatter me and are as close to my heart as the award itself.
Finally, a special thanks to my wife Shoshana and my family members for their continuous support, including my young grandson Dekal who at the age of six months is making his first attempts at communication.

Thank you!