Gitlin was born in
Brooklyn, New York and graduated from the noted
James Madison High School in 1959. He received a BEE (with honors) in electrical engineering from
The City College of New York (CCNY) in 1964, followed by an
MSEE in 1965 and a Doctor of Engineering Science in 1969, both from
Columbia University. Gitlin's research, under the supervision of William R. Bennett, was in the area of adaptive
signal processing used early
machine learning techniques for signal classification and detection. After receiving his doctorate, Gitlin joined
Bell Laboratories, where he worked for 32 years in research and development of
digital communications,
broadband networking, and
wireless systems. His work there resulted in many innovative products, including: co-invention of DSL (digital subscriber line), invention of multicode CDMA (used in
3G wireless), and pioneering the use of smart antennas (“MIMO”) for wireless systems. Earlier in his career, Gitlin led the team that created the first V.32/V.34 duplex, high-speed
modems that used
echo cancellation, fractionally spaced equalization, and
trellis coded modulation. At his retirement in 2001, Gitlin was Senior VP for Communications and Networking Research at Bell Labs (then reorganized as
Lucent), leading a multi-national research organization with over 500 professionals. After retiring from Bell Labs, he was visiting professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University, Chief Technology Officer of NEC Labs America, CTO of Hammerhead Systems, a venture funded networking company in
Silicon Valley, and in 2008 he joined USF as a faculty member. He also served on the Board of Directors of PCTEL (NASDAQ: PCTI). At the
University of South Florida (USF) Gitlin was a
State of Florida 21st Century Scholar, Distinguished University Professor, and the
Agere Systems Chaired Professor of Electrical Engineering. Currently, he is Distinguished University Professor, Emeritus and a Professor in USF's Institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation. At USF his research had two major themes: (1) the intersection of communications with medicine to advance minimally invasive surgery and other cyber-physical health care systems and devices, such as a vectorcardiogram that uses machine learning to provide predictive 24/7 diagnostic quality cardiac care in a compact personal device and (2) creating novel, foundational technologies to ensure ultra-reliability, low latency, and other advanced technological capabilities for the emerging 5G wireless and IoT wireless networks, as well as future 6G wireless networks. He retired from USF in 2019. Gitlin has co-authored a data communications text, published more than 175 papers, including 3 prize-winning papers, and holds 76 US
patents. He currently lives with his wife, Barbara, in La Jolla, CA. Gitlin has made sustained research contributions over several decades and continues to be an influential thinker and technology leader. ==Honors and awards==