ASU's Panchanathan receives IEEE leadership and service award

Sethuraman Panchanathan, executive vice president of Knowledge Enterprise Development and chief research and innovation officer at ASU, will receive the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Phoenix Section Outstanding Leadership and Professional Service award Feb. 11.

The award honors IEEE members who, throughout their careers, have made outstanding and noteworthy contributions to their institutes and communities.

“Being a member and fellow of a prestigious organization such as IEEE that continues to advance innovation in the field and inspire students has been an important part of my career as an educator, researcher and leader,” Panchanathan said. “I’m honored and humbled by this recognition.”

Panchanathan leads ASU’s knowledge enterprise, which advances research, innovation, strategic partnerships, entrepreneurship and global and economic development at ASU.

Panchanathan was the founding director of the School of Computing and Informatics and was instrumental in founding the Biomedical Informatics Department at ASU. He also served as the chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department. He founded the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) at ASU. 

Vasudeva Prasad Atluri and Charles E. Weitzel, IEEE Phoenix Awards Committee chair and vice-chair, respectively, said Panchanathan was selected for this year’s Outstanding Leadership and Professional Service award for exemplifying the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship and social responsibility.

The award is not designed to recognize a single achievement, Atluri and Weitzel said, but rather collective contributions complemented by singular works exemplifying the objectives and attributes of IEEE.

Panchanathan has achieved high standards in academia, research and development, and industrial involvement and mentorship, as well as is very involved with local and professional communities through his teaching and research works and by his influence as a member of the National Science Board, they said.  

Among his many appointments, Panchanathan has served as an editor-in-chief of IEEE Multimedia Magazine, IEEE-USA’s Technology Policy Committee, the IEEE Circuits & Systems Society’s Multimedia Systems and Applications Technical Committee, General and Program Chair of IEEE conferences, and as guest editor of special issues including the 2016 special issue of the IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Signal Processing. He is an IEEE Fellow.