Purdue Trustees Name Szpankowski Distinguished Professor
12-21-2015
Writer(s): Jesica E. Hollinger
Wojciech Szpankowski, the Saul Rosen Professor of Computer Science was named Distinguished Professor by the Purdue Board of Trustees on Saturday (Dec. 19).
Szpankowski joined the CS Department in 1985, as an assistant professor of computer science, before he was promoted to 1992. Before coming to Purdue, he was an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Technical University in Gdansk, Poland, from 1980-83, and was an assistant professor of computer science from 1983-84 at McGill University in Montreal.
This fall, he was named the winner of the inaugural 2015 Arden L. Bement Award, one of Purdue's top three awards for research. In 2010, he received the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award in 2010. He also is a Humboldt fellow, fellow of the IEEE and an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury. He has served on top editorial boards and gave the Helsinki Distinguished Lecture Series on Future Information Technology in 2014.
His research interests include the analysis and design of algorithms, information theory including multimedia compression, random structures, analytic combinatorics, bioinformatics, performance evaluation, networking, and stability problems in distributed systems.
Szpankowski received his master's degree and doctorate from the Technical University of Gdansk in electrical engineering and computer science.
During their December meeting, the trustees ratified seven named and distinguished professors and approved a resolution of appreciation for eight donors who have given $1 million or more to Purdue. Trustees approved Todor Cooklev as the Harris Chair of Wireless Communication and Applied Research in the College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne; Hilkka Kenttämaa as a distinguished professor of chemistry; James "Jess" Lowenberg-DeBoer as the College of Agriculture Professor of Excellence in International Entrepreneurship; Issam Mudawar as the Betty Ruth and Milton B. Hollander Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Srinivas Peeta as the Jack and Kay Hockema Professor in Civil Engineering, and Arkady Plotnitsky as a distinguished professor of English.