Karlheinz Brandenburg (born June 20, 1954, in Erlangen, Germany) is an audio engineer who has contributed to the audio compression format MPEG Audio Layer 3, more frequently known as MP3.

Biography

He received a Dipl. Ing. degree from Erlangen University in Electrical Engineering (1980) as well as a Dipl. Math. degree in Mathematics (1982). In 1989 he obtained his Ph.D. from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg in Electrical Engineering for his work on digital audio coding and perceptual measurement techniques. The research results of his dissertation are the basis of MPEG-1 Layer 3 (mp3), MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) and most other modern audio compression schemes.

From 1989 to 1990 he worked with AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, U.S. on ASPEC and MPEG-1 Layer 3. In 1990, he returned to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, and, in 1993, he became head of the Audio/Multimedia department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits in Erlangen. Since 2000, he is full professor at the Institute for Media Technology at Technical University of Ilmenau. In addition, he is the director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT in Ilmenau.

Brandenburg is a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and head of the AES Standards Committee working group SC-06-04 Internet Audio Delivery Systems. He has been granted 27 US patents as a co-inventor; all patents have multiple inventors.

Awards

1990 Graduation Award of the Technical Faculty, University Erlangen-Nuremberg

1994 Fellow, Audio Engineering Society (AES)

1996 Innovation Award: Approval of Bavarian State Government

1998 Silver Medal, Audio Engineering Society, "for continued contributions and leadership in the art and science of perceptual audio coding"

2000 Board of Governors Award, Audio Engineering Society

2000 Ceremony of German Future Award of Federal President for developing of the mp3 format to Karlheinz Brandenburg, Harald Popp and Bernhard Grill

2000 Consumer Electronics Society, IEEE: Engineering Excellence Award, Region 10

2001 German Internet Award NEO

2003 Publications Award, Audio Engineering Society

2004 SPUTNIK Innovator Award

2004 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award "for major contributions to digital audio source coding"