Computer systems expert named head of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Samee Khan
A national leader in computer systems has been chosen as the new department head for electrical & computer engineering within Mississippi State University’s Bagley College of Engineering.
Samee Khan will begin his new role as department head on August 1, 2020, pending approval of the State Board of Trustees, Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. He comes to Mississippi State from North Dakota State University, where he served as professor of electrical and computer engineering. From July 2016, he has been on leave from NDSU to serve at the National Science Foundation as program director and lead for the Computer Systems Research Cluster within the Division of Computer and Network Systems.
“I feel humbled and honored to be selected to serve the faculty, staff, and students of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,” Khan said. “During my visit to Mississippi State, I was impressed with the departmental facilities, both instructional and research laboratories, and especially the High Voltage Laboratory – a truly unique enterprise.”
Khan’s research on computer systems (focusing on optimization, security, and robustness) has appeared in over 400 publications. Currently, he is the associate editor-in-chief of the IEEE IT Professional Magazine and associate editor of the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing and the ACM Computing Surveys. Previously, he has been on the editorial boards on IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Cloud Computing Magazine, IEEE Access, and IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials. He is also a ACM Distinguished Speaker an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.
Khan has been recognized by the IEEE on numerous occasions, most recently winning the Best Journal Paper Award from the IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on Big Data in December 2019 for his paper published in IEEE Transactions on Big Data. He also earned the Professional Achievement Award and the Meritorious Service Award from the organization in 2016.
At the NSF, Khan oversaw a number of programs, including:
-- Smart & Autonomous Systems (S&AS)
-- Critical Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure Systems and Processes (CRISP)
-- Formal Methods in the Field (FMitF)
-- NSF/VMware Partnership on Software Defined Infrastructure as a Foundation for Clean-Slate Computing Security (SDI-CSCS)
-- NSF/VMware Partnership on Edge Computing Data Infrastructure (ECDI)
-- CNS Core
During his time at the NSF, he also oversaw a computer systems research portfolio of approximately $150 million that provided support to roughly 500 researchers.
“I am excited that someone of Dr. Khan’s stature and reputation will be leading our electrical & computer engineering department,” said Jason Keith, dean of the Bagley College of Engineering. “He is an international leader in computer systems who values teamwork and collaboration. His leadership should be a tremendous benefit for our students and faculty.”
Khan received his bachelor’s degree from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology in Topi, Pakistan in 1999 and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 2007.
Khan replaces former department head Nicolas Younan, who retired from the Bagley College of Engineering in 2019.
The Bagley College of Engineering is online at www.bagley.msstate.edu and can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube at @msuengineering.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.
Philip Allison | Bagley College of Engineering
