The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced today (Thursday, 20 August 2009) the appointment of Prof Khaled Ben Letaief as Dean of Engineering with effect from 1 September 2009.
Prof Ben Letaief, Chair Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering, has been selected for this key position following a competitive worldwide search. He will succeed Prof Philip Chan, who has assumed the deanship for the past 6 years – the longest-serving dean in the history of HKUST.
Since joining HKUST as Assistant Professor in 1993, Prof Ben Letaief has made remarkable achievements in teaching, research and service. He is the 1998 Michael G Gale Medalist for Distinguished Teaching – the highest teaching award at the University awarded to only one faculty member each year. He also received four Teaching Excellence Appreciation Awards from the School of Engineering between 1995 and 1999, and is currently the Chair of the University Working Group for the 4-Year Curriculum Development.
Prof Ben Letaief is an internationally renowned researcher in the field of wireless communication. He was recently elected Vice-President of the IEEE Communications Society in 2009. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications – Wireless Series. He has been a Fellow of IEEE since 2003. He is also the recipient of many distinguished awards including the 2007 IEEE Communications Society Publications Exemplary Award as well as 8 Best Paper Awards with the latest being the very prestigious 2009 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications.
Besides achieving excellence in teaching and research, Prof Ben Letaief has demonstrated his outstanding leadership skills and management qualities when he served as the Head of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering from July 2003 to June 2009. He has also been Director of the Wireless IC System Design Center in Nansha, Guangdong Province, since May 2006, and Director of Hong Kong Telecom Institute of Information Technology since September 2002.
Prof Ben Letaief received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in the USA. Prior to joining HKUST, he was a faculty member in the University of Melbourne for three years.
For media enquiries, please feel free to contact :
Ross Lai
Tel: 2358 6306 / 9103 2928
Email: rosslai@ust.hk
Donna Wong
Tel: 2358 6317
Email: donnaw@ust.hk
