A Message from the New Society President

Dear members of the Signal Processing community:

I am humbled by the opportunity to serve as President of the IEEE Signal Processing Society; one of the largest, most vibrant, and also oldest IEEE Society.  We are blessed with many dedicated volunteers who care deeply about our discipline, its standing, and contributions in a fast-changing environment. They also care about serving our members, from the most junior to the most experienced, and about creating opportunities for the betterment and advancement of their careers in industry and academia. We will do our best to make you proud of your association with the Society. This initial short message is meant to introduce you to our leadership team. We will be engaging you more directly in future messages (including already at the end of this message). 

The current members of the Executive Committee of the Society are:

Ali H. Sayed (EPFL, Switzerland), President
Ahmed Tewfik (UT Austin, USA), President-Elect
Walter Kellerman (University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany), Vice-President Technical Directions
Fernando Pereira (Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal), Vice-President Conferences
Nikos Sidiropoulos (University of Virginia, USA), Vice-President Membership
Sergios Theodoridis (University of Athens, Greece), Vice-President Publications
Rich Baseil, (IEEE Signal Processing Society, USA), Executive Director.

 

I would like to welcome Bjorn Ottersten, our incoming Chair of the Awards Board, who takes over from our distinguished colleague Vince Poor. I would also like to express our gratitude to the outgoing Vice-President Publications, Thrasos Pappas, and the outgoing Vice-President Conferences, Carlo Regazzoni. I would also like to convey our appreciation for the outgoing members of the Board of Governors of the Society: Maria Sabrina Greco, Steve Young, and Abdelhak Zoubir. We have accomplished many good things together. And a warm welcome to the incoming members of the same board: Shoji Makino, Athina Petropulu, and Paris Smaragdis. It is with the selfless service of volunteers of this caliber that our Society grows stronger.

It has been an honor and privilege for me to serve under outgoing President Rabab Ward. She is gracious, energetic, and thoughtful. She is passionate about Society affairs and our members, and led the Society in a stellar fashion. Our Society has been fortunate to have a volunteer like her who has contributed in so many ways and at so many levels. 

(Some homework for our members) The Executive Committee of the Society will be meeting soon in February for a brainstorming session. I would like to encourage all members of the Society to send us suggestions and ideas to consider. Please feel free to write to sps-president@ieee.org. I will be leading a Society that is responsive to direct input from its members. So this is your chance.  I encourage all members to write, whether you are a recent student member who just joined the Society, or an experienced volunteer with greater exposure to Society affairs. I will be checking this email account regularly looking for your ideas and insights. One of my responsibilities is to facilitate the transformation of great viable proposals into reality.
 
Wishing you all the best,
 
Ali H. Sayed, President