Hagenauer received his doctorate in 1974 from
Darmstadt University of Technology where he also served as an assistant professor. In 1990 he was appointed a director of the Institute for Communication Technology at the
German Aerospace Center DLR in
Oberpfaffenhofen. In 1993 he became the Chair of the University of Technology's Communications Technology department in
Munich, Germany. He was also active at the IEEE Information Theory Society. In 1992, Hagenauer was elevated to the grade of
IEEE fellow for contribution to the application of convolutional codes to mobile radio and satellite communications. He was awarded the Erich Regener and Otto Lilienthal Prizes from the German Aerospace Association, and the
Armstrong Award from the
IEEE Communications Society, and was also elected to the
Bavarian Academy of Science. In 2003, he received the
IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal for meritorious achievements in telecommunications. Hagenauer died on 16 January 2026, at the age of 84. == See also ==