Prof. Khaled B. LETAIEF Elected to US National Academy of Engineering

17/02/2021

Academic Leadership Recognized

Prof. Khaled B. LETAIEF Elected to US National Academy of Engineering

Prof. Khaled B. Letaief was recognized by the prestigious US National Academy of Engineering for contributions to wireless systems research and academic leadership. [Download Photo]

Prof. Khaled B. LETAIEF, New Bright Professor of Engineering and Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, has been elected one of the 23 new international members of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), for contributions to adaptive resource allocation in multiuser orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing wireless systems and for academic leadership.

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Its membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”

The newly elected class includes 106 members from the US and 23 international members, bringing the total US membership to 2,355 and the number of international members to 298. The new members will be formally inducted during the NAE’s annual meeting on Oct 3, 2021 in Washington, DC.

“This is without question the highlight of my career as being an academician in the US is among the highest professional honors in engineering. As a “home-grown” faculty member at HKUST in Hong Kong, I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this distinction and join such a group of outstanding leaders from academia and industry,” said Prof. Letaief.

Prof. Khaled B. Letaief is an internationally recognized leader in wireless communications and networks with research interest in artificial intelligence, big data analytics systems, mobile cloud and edge computing, tactile Internet, 5G systems and beyond.

He joined HKUST in 1993 and had served in many high-level administrative positions, including Dean of Engineering (2009-2015) and Head of Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering (2003-2009) at HKUST, and Provost of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (2015-2018) in Qatar. He also took leadership roles in professional societies, such as President of the IEEE Communications Society (2018-2019), the world’s leading organization for communications professionals, and Founding Editor-in-Chief (2002-2006) of the well-regarded IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

In his research areas, he has over 640 papers with over 38,360 citations and an h-index of 88. He also has 15 patents, including 11 US inventions. A Fellow of IEEE and HKIE, he has recently added to his long list of accolades with Tunisia’s national award for the Best Tunisian Researcher or Inventor Abroad and Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (HKAES) in 2020.