Professor Raouf Boutaba will become the eighth Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, a four-year appointment that begins on July 1, 2020.
He brings to this leadership position 21 years of experience at the University of Waterloo that spans excellence in research, teaching, mentorship and service in both the Cheriton School of Computer Science and the Faculty of Mathematics.
Professor Boutaba completed a BSc in computer engineering at the University of Annaba, Algeria in 1988, followed by an MSc in 1990 and PhD in 1994 in computer science at Pierre and Marie Curie University, France. He joined the Cheriton School of Computer Science in 1999 as an Assistant Professor after three years as Lead Researcher at the Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Montréal. In 2002, he was promoted to Associate Professor and in 2007 to Full Professor. In 2016, he became the Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Mathematics and in July 2019 was appointed its first Associate Dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“Raouf brings an astonishing breadth and depth of experience to the position,” said Professor Peter van Beek, acting Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. “In addition to the many accolades he has received from the University of Waterloo, Raouf is also a nationally and internationally recognized computer scientist. He has received many best paper awards at leading international conferences and he has been awarded prestigious chairs and fellowships, among them being named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, an appointment as an INRIA International Chair, and most recently his being named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.”
Among the recognitions he has received for research excellence by the University of Waterloo are a Fellowship of the Faculty of Mathematics from 2003 to 2005 and a David R. Cheriton Faculty Fellowship from 2007 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2015. He received the University of Waterloo’s Outstanding Performance Award in 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2017, a recognition conferred to faculty members for outstanding contributions in teaching, scholarship and service. For his contributions to systems and networking research, Professor Boutaba was named in 2018 a University Research Chair, a prestigious title that acknowledges the exceptional achievements of Waterloo faculty members and their pre-eminence in a field of knowledge.
Professor Boutaba is a core member of the Systems and Networking group at the Cheriton School of Computer Science and an affiliate member of the Cryptography, Security, and Privacy group. His primary research interests are on managing networks, systems and services, and on resource management in wired and wireless networks. His current research focus includes network virtualization, software-defined networks, cloud computing and services, blockchain applications, and cybersecurity.
Professor Boutaba and the graduate students he mentors are recipients of more than a dozen best paper awards, most recently the best student paper award and best paper award at NetSoft 2019, best paper award at CNSM 2019, best student paper award at Blockchain-2018, and best paper award at CNSM 2017.
Professor Boutaba received the Premier’s Research Excellence Award in 2000, the Dan Stokesberry Award in 2009, and the McNaughton Gold Medal in 2014. His research was granted a Discovery Accelerator Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) in 2009, and the joint Department of National Defence (DND) and NSERC Discovery Grant Supplement in 2019.
He has a long track record of collaboration with the industry. He received a Research Excellence Award in 2004 and an Award for Leadership Excellence in Technology Transfer in 2005, both from Nortel Networks Corporation, a Google Faculty Research Award in 2011, and an IBM Faculty Award in 2013.
Professor Boutaba succeeds Professor Mark Giesbrecht, who was the Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science from July 2014 until June 2020 and now serves as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics.