Martin Cooper (born December 26, 1928) is an American engineer. He is a pioneer and visionary in the wireless communications industry. With eleven patents in the field, he is recognized as an innovator in radio spectrum management.While at Motorola in the 1970s, Cooper conceived the first handheld mobile phone (distinct from the car phone) in 1973 and led the team that developed it and brought it to market in 1983. He is considered the "father of the cell phone" and is also cited as the first person in history to make a handheld cellular phone call in public.He won Charles Stark Draper Prize in 2013 for mobile phone pioneers who laid the groundwork for today’s smartphone.