FCC Names First Woman CTO

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has picked a new to tech adviser and it will be the first woman to hold that post.

Dr. Monisha Ghosh has been named chief technology officer effective Jan. 13.

Ghosh replaces Eric Burger, who moved to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in October.

Ghosh has been a program director at the National Science Foundation, where she managed wireless research as well as machine learning for wireless systems. She is a research professor (5G, IoT, WiFi) at the University of Chicago, where Pai went to law school.

Her resume also includes Philips Research and Bell Labs, where she worked on the HDTV broadcast standard, cable standards and TV white spaces issues.

“As the FCC moves aggressively to advance American leadership in 5G, Dr. Ghosh’s deep technical knowledge of wireless technologies will be invaluable,” said Pai. “Dr. Ghosh has both conducted and overseen research into cutting-edge wireless issues in academia and industry. Her expertise is also broad, ranging from the Internet of Things, medical telemetry, and broadcast standards. And it bears noting that this is an historic appointment: I am proud that Dr. Ghosh will be the FCC’s first female CTO, and hope her example inspires young women everywhere to consider careers in STEM fields..."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.