Networking Leader Scott Shenker Appointed Chief Scientist of ICSI

^{August 10, 2012}
ICSI has appointed Scott Shenker as its first chief scientist. Shenker, who has led ICSI's Networking Group since 1998, will help set its research agenda and represent the interests of its researchers. He is the first to serve as chief scientist of ICSI.

"We established the role of chief scientist at ICSI to ensure the Institute continues with our research excellence and expands our worldwide scientific relevance in today's quickly evolving technological landscape," said Director Roberto Pieraccini. "And Scott Shenker, a true visionary, a role model in the computer science community and one of the pillars of ICSI, is ideally qualified to take on this role."

Shenker is well known for his contributions to Internet architecture and other topics in network design. He is also a leader, with Martin Casado and Nick McKeown, in the movement toward software-defined networking and currently serves on the board of the Open Networking Foundation. Earlier this year, Shenker was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering; he is also a fellow of the ACM and the IEEE and has received the ACM SIGCOMM and IEEE Internet Awards.

"Scientists are the lifeblood of any research organization. As chief scientist, I have the honor of representing their interests at ICSI as we plan for the future," Shenker said. "I'm very excited about this opportunity to help ICSI expand its research agenda to address new scientific challenges."

Shenker received his PhD in physics in 1983 from the University of Chicago, and was later awarded an honorary doctorate from the same university for his contributions to computer science. After working as a postdoctoral associate in physics at Cornell, he joined the research staff at Xerox PARC. He left PARC in 1998 to help found what is now the ICSI Center for Internet Research. He joined UC Berkeley's electrical engineering and computer science faculty in 2004, a position he continues to hold