Prof Khaled Ben Letaief, Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE) and former Dean of Engineering, was named President-Elect of the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc), an independent society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) with over 32,000 members in more than 160 countries.

He will serve a one-year term as President-Elect in 2017 and subsequently a two-year term as President in 2018 and 2019. The election is held every two years and is based upon a worldwide vote by all members and graduate students members. Founded in 1952, IEEE ComSoc is a leading global community comprised of a diverse group of industry professionals with a common interest in advancing all communications technologies.

Prof Letaief is currently Provost of Hamad bin Khalifa University, a newly established research-intensive university in Qatar. He joined HKUST in 1993 and had served as the Dean of Engineering from 2009 to 2015 and the Head of ECE Department from 2003 to 2009. As a world-renowned leader in wireless communications and networks, he has published over 500 journal and conference papers and given invited keynote talks as well as courses all over the world. He has made six major contributions to IEEE Standards along with 13 patents. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications and was instrumental in organizing many IEEE flagship conferences as well as serving IEEE in many leadership positions, including IEEE ComSoc Vice-President for Technical Activities and IEEE ComSoc Vice-President for Conferences.

Prof Letaief is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award (2009 & 2016), 2010 Purdue Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award and 2011 IEEE Harold Sobol Award. He is also named ISI Highly Cited Researcher, IEEE Fellow and HKIE Fellow.

He holds the BS degree with distinction, MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, US.