Abraham Lempel
Israeli computer scientist who co-invented Lempel–Ziv compression
- Lived
- 86 yrs
- 1936 – 2023
- Works listed
- 1
- Paper
- Honours
- 2
- Most recent 2007
- Profile views
- 2
- 0 followers
Abraham Lempel was an Israeli computer scientist who, with Jacob Ziv, created the Lempel–Ziv family of lossless compression algorithms, the basis of ZIP, GIF and PNG. He founded HP Labs Israel.
Biography
Background
Lempel was born in Lwów in 1936 and moved to Israel. He studied at the Technion, earning his doctorate in 1967, and became a professor there.
Lempel–Ziv
His papers with Jacob Ziv in 1977 and 1978 introduced dictionary-based compression that adapts to any data. Terry Welch’s 1984 refinement, LZW, was used in GIF images and Unix compress.
Industry
In 1994 he founded HP Labs Israel, where researchers developed the LOCO-I lossless image compression used in JPEG-LS and in images from NASA’s Mars rovers.
Honours
He received the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal in 2007 and died in 2023.
Timeline
-
1936
Born in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine)
-
1967
Doctorate from the Technion
-
1977
LZ77
-
1978
LZ78
-
1994
Founds HP Labs Israel
-
1997
Paris Kanellakis Award
-
2007
IEEE Hamming Medal
-
2023
Dies
-
2023
Died, aged 86
Notable works
-
1978
Compression of Individual Sequences via Variable-Rate Coding Paper
With Jacob Ziv.
Awards and honours
-
Paris Kanellakis Award
1997
-
IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal
2007
Did you know?
-
1
The LZW patent caused controversy over GIF images in the 1990s, leading to the PNG format.
-
2
Mars rover images used compression developed at his lab.
-
3
He was born in what is now Ukraine.
Connections
Also born on 10 February
Frequently asked
Who is Abraham Lempel?
Abraham Lempel was an Israeli computer scientist who, with Jacob Ziv, created the Lempel–Ziv family of lossless compression algorithms, the basis of ZIP, GIF and PNG. He founded HP Labs Israel.
When did Abraham Lempel die?
Abraham Lempel died on 3 February 2023 at the age of 86.
Where is Abraham Lempel from?
Abraham Lempel was born in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine).
What is Abraham Lempel known for?
Abraham Lempel is best known for LZ77 and LZ78 compression (with Jacob Ziv); founding HP Labs Israel.
What awards has Abraham Lempel received?
Notable honours include Paris Kanellakis Award (1997), IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal (2007).
References
- Abraham Lempel — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Abraham Lempel — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Abraham Lempel (Q92847) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Abraham Lempel”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Abraham Lempel.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/abraham-lempel
Discussion 0
Sign in or create an account to join the discussion.
No comments yet — be the first.
More in Science
Science
Marvin Minsky
Co-founder of MIT’s artificial intelligence laboratory and a founding father of AI
1927 – 2016
Science
Margaret Hamilton
MIT engineer who led the software for the Apollo Moon landings and coined “software engineering”
1936 – 2026
Science
Nikola Tesla
Serbian-American inventor of the alternating-current induction motor
1856 – 1943
Science
Yann LeCun
French-American AI pioneer who invented convolutional neural networks
Born 1959
Science
Peter Naur
Danish computer scientist who edited the ALGOL 60 report and refined Backus–Naur form
1928 – 2016
Science
M. Visvesvaraya
Engineer and statesman, whose birthday is India’s Engineers’ Day
1860 – 1962