On August  29, 2013, Dr. Farnam Jahanian, Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), announced the appointment of Dr. Rao Kosaraju as the new Division Director for the Computing and Communications Foundations (CCF) Division within the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate.  Below is Dr. Jahanian’s letter to the CISE community.

Dear CISE Community,

 

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Professsor Rao Kosaraju to the position of Director of the CISE Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF), effective January 2014.

 

Prof. Kosaraju will be joining the National Science Foundation (NSF) from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), where he is currently the Edward J. Schaefer Professor of Computer Science. He has been on the JHU faculty since 1969, where he has served in the departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, including as Department Chair for Computer Science. Prof. Kosaraju has made significant contributions to the design and analysis of parallel and sequential algorithms. His current research interests span a wide range of topics, from efficient pattern-matching algorithms to computational biology and immune system theory. A prolific scholar, he is a widely recognized leader in the computer science community.  His research has been supported by NSF, the U.S. Army Research Office, and the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology).

 

Prof. Kosaraju holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, and a B. Eng. from Andhra University. He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and has been an editor for a number of journals, including the SIAM Journal on Computing. He is known for his enthusiasm for service and excellence in computing education, for which he has received numerous awards. He has served on Advisory Committees and External Review Boards for a variety of universities. From 1985-1991, he served on NSF’s Advisory Committee for Computer and Computation Research (now the CISE Advisory Committee), which he chaired from 1989-1991. We are confidant that he will successfully represent the diverse spectrum of research areas covered in CCF and that he will significantly contribute to CISE’s mission in advancing the frontiers of computing, communications and information science and engineering.

 

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Susanne Hambrusch for her many contributions to CISE and the computing community. She served as DD from 2010 to 2013, leading CCF in its mission to support research and education projects that explore the foundations of computing and communications devices and their usage. In addition to her stewardship of the CCF core programs, Susanne successfully led the development of several crosscutting programs and initiatives at NSF including CyberSEES, the interdisciplinary Faculty Program in Quantum Information Science, eXploiting Parallelism and Scalability (XPS), and the US-Israel Collaboration in Computer Science. Furthermore, during her tenure at NSF, she worked tirelessly to increase the number of Graduate Research Fellowships for students pursuing CISE disciplines. She returns to Purdue University at the end of August 2013.  Susanne has been an invaluable member of the CISE leadership team. NSF greatly appreciates Susanne’s many contributions and her efforts on behalf of the CISE community.

 

On behalf of the CISE Directorate, I would like to thank the external search committee members (http://www.nsf.gov/cise/ccf/CCF_DD_SearchCommittee.pdf) for their excellent work in identifying an extraordinary pool of candidates for this important position. Their service was invaluable in helping NSF identify the right candidate for this job.

 

I enthusiastically welcome Prof. Kosaraju to the CISE Directorate, and look forward to working with him to advance the frontiers of knowledge in computing and communication foundations. Together, we will ensure that the CISE community continues to lead in the discovery and innovation required to meet our most pressing societal challenges.

 

Best regards,

Farnam