Together with Professor Claude Berrou, Alain Glavieux developed a new family of error correction codes called turbo codes. He also pioneered the principle of turbo equalization.
He received an IEEE Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation in 1998, the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal in 2003, and the French Academy of Sciences Grand Prix France Telecom in 2003.
Claude Berrou won the 2005 Marconi Prize, the first time in history that a French scientist has won this award.