Each year, the CCC Council welcomes a new cohort of members whose terms begin on July 1st. Today, we’re delighted to introduce the following members joining the Council. We look forward to the unique perspectives and expertise they’ll bring to CCC, helping to enrich the broader computing research community and shape its future.
Cindy Bethel
“I am honored and excited to serve on the CCC Council because I strongly support its mission to catalyze innovative, high-impact research that addresses pressing national and global challenges. I look forward to contributing perspectives on responsible, human-centered approaches to computing and artificial intelligence that help shape research visions grounded in ethics, trust, and real-world impact.”
Cindy L. Bethel, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and holds the Billie J. Ball Endowed Professorship in Engineering at Mississippi State University (MSU). She is a Senior Member of both IEEE and ACM and directs the Social, Therapeutic, and Robotic Systems (STaRS) Lab. Since joining MSU in August 2011, Dr. Bethel has managed nearly $15 million in grant funding and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, and extended abstracts/posters.
Dr. Bethel recently served as an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) Program Director at the National Science Foundation from 2022 to 2025. Earlier in her career, she was an NSF/CRA/CCC Computing Innovation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Social Robotics Laboratory at Yale University and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at the University of South Florida (USF). She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from USF in August 2009, with doctoral minors in Psychology and Applied Statistics. Her research spans human-robot interaction, robotics, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, cognitive science, and psychology. Her work focuses on the design, evaluation, and application of robotic and AI-enabled systems for therapeutic support, human-autonomy and human-AI teaming, law enforcement, search and rescue, and military operations.
Vipin Kumar
“Computing is entering a period of unprecedented opportunity, particularly at the intersection of AI and scientific discovery. I am excited to serve on the CCC Council and help bring the research community together to identify emerging opportunities, shape future directions, and maximize the societal impact of computing.”
Vipin Kumar is Regents Professor and William Norris Endowed Chair in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research has made foundational contributions to data mining, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and high-performance computing, and he is widely recognized for pioneering work in applying AI to scientific discovery and societal challenges.
Kumar is a Fellow of AAAI, ACM, IEEE, AAAS, and SIAM, and a recipient of the ACM SIGKDD Innovation Award, the IEEE Sidney Fernbach Award, and the IEEE Taylor L. Booth Education Award. He currently serves on the United Nations Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, a global body of leading experts established by the United Nations General Assembly to provide independent scientific assessments and guidance on AI’s opportunities, risks, and societal impacts.
Carl Landwehr
“I volunteered in order to bring a broad and deep perspective to the CCC Council’s activities, based on my years as a researcher at the Naval Research Laboratory, as program director at NSF and IARPA, consultant to DARPA, NSA, and many other organizations.”
Carl Landwehr’s career focused on cybersecurity research, serving at the Naval Research Laboratory, NSF, IARPA, and DARPA. He served at NSF as Program Director in CISE 2001-2004 and 2008-2011; he was the founding PD for SaTC and received the Director’s Award for Excellence in Program Management, 2005. He is an IEEE Fellow, a member of the National Cyber Security Hall of Fame, and recipient of the Computing Research Association’s Distinguished Service Award. In retirement, he developed and taught a course entitled “Cybersecurity for Future Leaders.” He has also served on the advisory board for ACM SIGSAC, on the Board of Directors for the Center for Democracy and Technology (non-profit) and as co-chair of the subcommittee on cybersecurity for the ACM US Technology Policy Council.
Igor Markov
“By joining the CCC Council, I am hoping to help maintain scaling trends in computing hardware and AI applications by coordinating efforts in education, research, and industry.”
Igor Markov is a Distinguished Research Scientist at NVIDIA, whose career has spanned academia, industry research, and engineering. He was a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan and went on to work at Google, Meta, and Synopsys, contributing to information retrieval, AI infrastructure, optimization, and electronic design automation. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA, and is a Fellow of IEEE and a Distinguished Scientist of the ACM.
Nenad Medvidović
“Serving on the CCC Council presents an opportunity to help the computing community respond to and embrace the tremendous changes we are facing.”
Nenad (“Neno”) Medvidović is a Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California. Since 2022, he has served as his Department’s Chair. Neno served a five-year term as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE TSE, Transactions on Software Engineering (2018-2022), his field’s leading journal. He has served as Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (SIGSOFT) (2015-2018). Additionally, he has served as Chair of the Steering Committees for ICSE, the International Conference on Software Engineering (2013-2015), and FSE, the International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (2015-2017).
Neno has been the recipient of the Okawa Foundation Research Grant (2005), the IBM Real-Time Innovation Award (2007), the USC Mellon Mentoring Award (2010), the OCEC Distinguished Engineering Merit Award (2018), the ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Service Award (2020), the UC Irvine School of Information and Computer Sciences Alumni Hall of Fame Award (2023), and the IEEE Technical Council on Software Engineering (TCSE) Distinguished Service Award (2026). Several of his papers have received Most Influential Paper (“test of time”), Best Paper, and Most Cited Paper awards. Neno is a Fellow of ACM and IEEE.
George Pappas
“What drew me to the CCC Council is its unique role in shaping the long-term research agenda for computing at the national level. As AI systems move from the lab into the physical world, I hope to help the community articulate a vision for trustworthy, safe AI that earns the confidence of both researchers and the public.”
George Pappas is the UPS Foundation Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves as the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and as the Director of the Raj and Neera Singh program in Artificial Intelligence. Pappa
s’s research focuses on control systems, robotics, autonomous systems, formal methods, and machine learning for safe and secure cyber-physical systems. He has received numerous awards, including the NSF PECASE, the Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize, the George S. Axelby Award, the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award, and the George H. Heilmeier Faculty Excellence Award. Pappas has mentored more than fifty students and postdocs, now faculty in leading universities worldwide. He is a Fellow of AAAS, IEEE, IFAC, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2024.
David Shmoys
“The pace of change within higher education and computing, and the extent to which technology is driving these changes makes this a moment of both tremendous challenges and opportunities. This means that contributing to leadership for the computing community is particularly important, and is a mission that I am happy to serve.”
David Shmoys is the Laibe/Acheson Professor and Director of the Center for Data Science for Enterprise & Society at Cornell University. He obtained his PhD in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1984 and held postdoctoral positions at MSRI in Berkeley and Harvard University, and a faculty position at MIT before joining the faculty at Cornell University. He was Chair of the Cornell Provost’s “Radical Collaborations” Task Force on Data Science and was co-Chair of the Academic Planning Committee for Cornell Tech.
His research has focused on the design and analysis of efficient algorithms for discrete optimization problems, with applications including scheduling, inventory theory, computational biology, computational sustainability, and data-driven decision-making in the sharing economy. Shmoys is a Fellow of the ACM, SIAM, INFORMS, and AAAS. His book (co-authored with David Williamson), The Design of Approximation Algorithms, was awarded the 2013 INFORMS Lanchester Prize and his work on bike-sharing (joint with Daniel Freund, Shane Henderson, and Eoin O’Mahony) was awarded the 2018 INFORMS Wagner Prize.
New Executive Committee Members
Please also welcome our new members of the CCC Council Executive Committee, chosen from current CCC Council Members. We look forward to their leadership!
David Jensen, Vice Chair
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Kevin Butler, Executive Committee Member
University of Florida
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