[5] His contributions to coding systems assisted the digital video and audio revolution, by enabling reliable data storage at information densities previously unattainable.

He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2007 for pioneering and advancing the era of digital audio, video, and data recording.

in electrical engineering (1974, cum laude) and a PhD degree (1985) from Eindhoven University of Technology on a thesis entitled Properties and Constructions of Binary Channel Codes .

[13] Fresh from engineering school, in 1967, he joined Philips Research Labs in Eindhoven, where he spent thirty years in a fruitful association.

Around 1976, Philips and Sony[18] showed prototypes of digital audio disc players, which were based on optical videodisc technology.

In the interview by Tekla Perry for the IEEE Spectrum, May 2017,[19] Immink explains that he got involved in the CD project at the end of 1979 when Sony and Philips had decided to jointly settle on one design.

After a lot of experimentation, Immink improved the playing time by thirty percent by inventing a code that could better cope with the servo systems.

[20][21] In the article, "Shannon, Beethoven, and the Compact Disc",[22] Immink presents a historical review of the years leading up to the launch of the CD, and the various crucial decisions made.

He refutes the urban legend that the compact disc's diameter was increased from 115 to 120 mm solely to hold the 74 minutes playing time of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler.

[22][24][25] After the CD standard was set in 1980, Immink and his co-workers conducted pioneering experiments with magneto-optical audio recording on pre-grooved discs.

Immink was a member of the Philips and Sony task force, which developed a competing disc format, called MultiMedia CD.

IBM's president, Lou Gerstner, urged them to adopt Immink's EFMPlus coding scheme as EFM has a proven record.

[31] Philips and Sony set up a joint task force, where Immink and his co-workers developed DVRs, later called Blu-ray's, code design.

The small research institute has been successful in creating new coding technology and has been granted around ten US patents after a joint cooperation with the Korean electronics company LG.