NSF Appoints New CISE Head and Senior Staff

By CRA

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced that Farnam Jahanian, professor and chair of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, will become the new head of its Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) directorate on February 1, 2011.

According to the NSF press release, "[Dr. Jahanian’s] extensive knowledge of and research in network infrastructures and his support for entrepreneurship and commercialization have already had great consequences for the nation's development of cybersecurity. And he has made tremendous strides in showcasing how innovative university research can be paired with private industry. He will be a tremendous addition to NSF."

Dr. Jahanian has been a Michigan faculty member since 1993, directing the Software Systems Laboratory for four years and serving as department chair since 2007. Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan, he was a research staff member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York.

His research on Internet infrastructure and security formed the basis for the highly successful Internet security services company, Arbor Networks, which Jahanian co-founded in 2001. Today, 70 percent of Internet backbone transit traffic is protected by Arbor technology, demonstrating how basic university research can be uniquely central to an innovation ecosystem that drives economic growth, global competitiveness, and job creation.

Dr. Jahanian has authored over 90 published research papers and has served on dozens of national advisory boards and government panels. He has received numerous other awards, including an ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Award for his foundational Internet security research, the Amoco teaching award, and the State of Michigan Governor's University Award for Commercialization Excellence. In 2009, he was named Distinguished University Innovator at the University of Michigan. He is a Fellow of ACM and IEEE.

NSF also has recently appointed three new CISE division directors: In June, Dr. Howard Wactlar became Director of the CISE Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS). He comes from Carnegie Mellon University where he was Vice Provost for Research Computing, Associate Dean, School of Computer Science, and Alumni Research Professor of Computer Science. Dr. Keith Marzullo joined CISE as Director of the CISE Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) in September. He was formerly chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego. In late August, Dr. Susanne Hambrusch, professor of Computer Sciences at Purdue University, and recent Secretary of the CRA Board, became Director of the Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF).