Connect : ComSoc Linkedin ComSoc Twitter ComSoc Facebook ComSoc You Tube

Donald W. McLellan Meritorious Service Award Winner Biographies

Stefano Galli (2011)

"For contributions to strengthening the Communications Society's strategic position in power line communications and smart grid communications."

Stefano Galli received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy) in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Currently, he is the Director of Technology Strategy at ASSIA where he leads the company’s overall standardization strategy and contributes to the company's efforts in the area of wired/wireless access and home area networking. Prior to this position, he held the role of Director of Energy Solutions R&D for Panasonic Corporation and was a Senior Scientist at Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies).

Dr. Galli is serving as elected Member-at-Large of the IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Board of Governors and is involved in a variety of capacities in Power Line Communications (PLC) and Smart Grid activities. He currently serves as: Chair of the IEEE ComSoc Ad-Hoc Committee on Smart Grid Communications, Member of the Energy and Policy Committee of IEEE-USA, Director of Smart Grid Activities in the IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on PLC, Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid and the IEEE Transactions on Communications (Wireline Systems and Smart Grid Communications), Chair of the ITU-T G.hnem (narrowband PLC) and G.wnb (narrowband wireless) projects, and Chair of the SGIP/NIST PAP-15 Coexistence Subgroup for PLC harmonization. He is also the founder and first Chair of the IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on PLC (2004-2010), the founder and first General Co-Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm), the past Co-Chair of the “Communications Technology” Task Force of the IEEE 2030 Smart Grid Interoperability Standard, and the past Co-Leader of the “Theoretical and Mathematical Models” Group for the IEEE 1901 Broadband over Power Lines standard.

Dr. Galli has worked on a variety of wireless and wired communications technologies, is an IEEE Senior Member, holds seventeen issued and pending patents, has published over 90 peer-reviewed papers, has co-authored two book chapters, and has made numerous standards contributions. He has received the 2011 Outstanding Service Award from the IEEE ComSoc Technical Committee on PLC, the 2010 IEEE ISPLC Best Paper Award, and the 2010 SGIP/NIST Certificate of Appreciation for his role in PAP 15.

 

Len J. Cimini, Jr (2010)

"For sustained, high-quality contributions to Communications Society governance and operations, including conference development, publications, awards processes and strategic planning."

Len Cimini received a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982, and then worked at Bell Labs and AT&T Labs for twenty years.  In 2002, he joined the ECE Department at the University of Delaware.  He has published more than 140 journal and conference papers and has been awarded 21 US patents.  Dr. Cimini has been very active within the IEEE, and he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE JSAC: Wireless Communications Series.  He has served two terms as a Member-at-Large on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communications Society, and is currently Vice President - Publications.  Len was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 2000 “for his contributions to the theory and practice of high-speed wireless communications,” and, in 2007, was given the James R. Evans Avant Garde Award from the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society for his pioneering work on OFDM for wireless communications.  In 2010, he was recognized as an Innovator by the New Jersey Inventor’s Hall of Fame.

 

Nim K. Cheung (2009)

"For sustained service and outstanding leadership in enhancing Communications Society operations and visibility."

Nim Cheung is a Telcordia Fellow and executive consultant for Telcordia Technologies. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Hong Kong and Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology. During the past 30 years he held different research and management positions at AT&T Bell Labs, Bellcore and Telcordia in optical and high-speed networking and network management. He conceived and helped create many gigabit and optical networking testbeds sponsored by the U.S. Government. As Telcordia's Vice President of Applied Research Government Program, he achieved double-digit growth rates for the program over his tenure.
In 2008 Nim became CEO of Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Ltd. ASTRI is a research organization created by the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to perform applied research and development in communication and information technology in order to enhance the competitiveness of local industries.

Nim is an IEEE Fellow and Bellcore Award of Excellence recipient. He has held numerous leadership positions in ComSoc: President (2006-07), Vice President of Technical Activities (1996-97), Strategic Planning Committee Chair (1998-99), Nomination & Election Committee (1998-2000), Fellow Evaluation Committee (2002-04), Fiftieth Anniversary Advisory Board (1998-99), Director of Related Societies (2000-01), Emerging Technologies Committee Chair (2002-03), and Distinguished Lecturer (1998-03). He has served in different editorial positions, and organized numerous conferences and workshops.  He is currently IEEE Division III Director-Elect and Chair of the Communications Society Nominations & Elections Committee.

 

Shri Goyal (2008)

"For exceptional contributions in globalization, advancement and industrial reach of IEEE Communications Society membership development and services."

Shri K. Goyal received his M.Sc. degree in Electronics from Allahabad University in India and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University.  He worked 25 plus years at GTE (now Verizon) Laboratories.  He provided direction and managed technical programs in the area of service definition, delivery and service assurance.  Currently, he is Dean of the College of Technology & Management in St Petersburg, Florida.

Dr. Goyal’s major contributions include co-founding the technical committees on Enterprise Networking and on Network Operations & Management, and creating and implementing the IndustryNow program that brought industry in India into cooperation with ComSoc.  He initiated the successful Membership Development Support Grant Program providing seed money for ComSoc chapters to initiate worthwhile activities.  These and other efforts addressed ComSoc’s vital need for enhanced services for members in industry.

An IEEE fellow, Dr. Goyal has contributed more than thirty refereed publications and three book chapters on Intelligent Systems, Information Technology Applications and Network/Service Management.  He has organized numerous global symposia including NOMS and IM.  He was Chair of CNOM and EntNet Technical Program Committees and served on GICC as M&C and TAC Liaison before assuming responsibility as Director of Meetings and Conferences (2004-6). Shri is currently ComSoc's Director of Membership Programs Development.

 

Roberto Saracco (2007)

"For outstanding sustained contributions to strengthening the IEEE Communications Society presence worldwide."

Roberto Saracco is responsible for long-term research and scientific communications reporting directly to the Chief Technology Officer of Telecom Italia.

In 2001 he became director of the Future Centre, a research centre focusing on the economic impact of innovations in the telecommunications area. During 1999 and 2000, Roberto proposed and delivered a World Bank project in the InfoDev framework to speed entrepreneurship in Latin American countries, and prior, 1999 and 2000, he proposed and carried out a World Bank project in the InfoDev framework to foster entrepreneurship in Latin America countries.

Roberto chaired the Visionary Group (1996-1997) on Super Intelligent Networks to steer the cooperative research at the European Union (EU) level beyond the year 2000. He is currently part of the Visionary Book Project of the EU. In 1994 he launched the Marketing & Communications area in CSELT, ensuring dissemination of innovation.

In the eighties, Roberto led research in Telecommunications Management in CSELT, and actively participated in standardization activities at CCITT, in the area of formal description techniques. Prior this role, he was involved in software design for the first Italian SPC systems.

In addition to CCITT, Roberto has directly, and indirectly, participated in a number of international standardization organizations including OSI, ETSI and T1M1. His leadership includes chairing an EU-level group for planning, leading European research activities in the area of software technologies, and the EURESCOM group in designing the framework for European co-operation on TMN. He has led the EURESCOM group in information modeling for Pan European Services and Network Management. He is a senior member of IEEE where he has held several leading roles. Currently he is the Director of the Sister Societies of COMSOC, a member of the Strategic Board of IEEE, and VP of the Italian Telecommunication Association (AICT).

On the FISTERA project (http://fistera.jrc.es) focused on steering research funding at the EU level, Roberto has the responsibility of forecasting technology trajectories for the next fifteen years in the area of information and communications technologies.  He is also a leader of the Council of Advisors http://www.thecouncils.com/, and has published over 100 papers in journals and magazines, six books – including “The Disappearance of Telecommunications,” which was published in the USA, and several articles in the scientific section of daily newspapers. He has also delivered speeches and keynotes at many international conferences.

At several stages in his career, Roberto has taught at Universities in Italy and around the world on the subject of Telecommunications, and most recently, on the New Economy. He currently lectures at the Turin Polytechnic on the aspects of multimedia and telecommunications.

 

Alexander D. Gelman (2006)

"For envisioning and prominently positioning the Society in its worldwide relations and in standard development activities, and for fostering the Society presence in consumer communications."

Alexander D. Gelman (ME, PhD, Electrical Engineering, City University of New York) is Chief Scientist at Panasonic Princeton Research Laboratory managing research programs in consumer communications and networking.  From 1984-1998, he was with Bellcore, as Director, Residential Internet Access Architectures Research.  Alex pioneered the DSLAM/Router architecture for DSL-based Broadband Access, served as advisor for Bell Atlantic on the ADSL trial, and architected Telia's DSL Multimedia and Internet Access trial.  He has numerous publications and holds some of the earliest DSL system patents (e.g., on xDSL-based Access Router). 

Alex organized ComSoc conferences and workshops, and served in various editorial roles in IEEE Communications Magazine, JSAC, and JCN.  Alex has served on the inaugural Steering Committees for IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, and the ICME.  He initiated the IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conferences, ComSoc’s Power Line Communications technical activities, the creation of ComSoc’s Standards Board, and the sponsorship of standardization in the areas of PLC and cognitive radio.  Alex served as Chair of the Multimedia Technical Committee, VP-Society Relations, and VP-Membership Development.  He currently serves on the Board of Governors of IEEE Standards Association, on the IEEE Transnational Committee, and as ComSoc’s Director of Standards.

 

Mark J. Karol (2005)

"For dedicated and outstanding service as Chair of IEEE Communications Society Technical Committees, General Chair IEEE ICC 2002, member of GICC, and Director of Magazines."

Mark Karol received the B.S. degree in mathematics and the B.S.E.E. degree from Case Western Reserve University, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University. From 1985 until 2000, he was a member of the Research Communications Sciences Division at Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ. Since September 2000, he has been a Research Scientist with Avaya Labs in Lincroft, NJ. With Avaya, he supports the design and analysis of next-generation switching and networking products, plus contributes to the development of VoIP algorithms and network experiments. He received the IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award (1997), the Case Western Reserve University Young Alumni Award (1996), and the Bell Labs Research Affirmative Action Award (1999).

Mark has held many leadership positions in publications and conference activities of the IEEE. He served as the first associate editor on networks/switching for the Journal of Lightwave Technology, General Chair of the 2002 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC2002), General Chair of the IEEE INFOCOM'94 Conference, Chair of the GLOBECOM’99 Symposium on High-Speed Networks, ComSoc Director of Magazines, Chair of the ComSoc Technical Committee on Computer Communications (TCCC), and Co-Chair of the TCCC Annual Workshop on Computer Communications. In 2002, Mark was honored with the TCCC Outstanding Service Award.

Currently, he serves as Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the IEEE Communications Society. In 2006-2007, he will serve on the IEEE Board as the Division III (Communications Technology) Director. Mark has served on the GLOBECOM/ICC Conference Board, the ComSoc Board of Governors (three times), and on the following ComSoc committees: Awards, Nominations & Elections, Technical Committee Recertification, Staff & Facilities, and Strategic Planning. In addition, Mark has served on the IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) and the IEEE TAB/PSPB Products & Services Committee.

In 1993, Dr. Karol was elected a Fellow of the IEEE for contributions to “the fundamental theory, design, and analysis of high-performance packet switches and multiuser lightwave communication networks.”

 

Harvey A. Freeman (2004)

"For outstanding long-term service to the Communications Society as Founder of IEEE INFOCOM and IEEE SECON Conferences, Founder of IEEE Network Magazine, Treasurer, and Vice President Technical Activities."

Harvey Freeman is currently an Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton, a global leader in strategy and technology consulting. With over thirty years of experience in the communications field, he specializes in designing/managing innovative technology-based solutions.  Harvey was founder/President of HAF Consulting, Inc., founder/President of LANWORKS, Inc., Vice President of Architecture Technology Corporation, Manager at Sperry Univac, and an engineer at RCA's Communications Systems Division.
 
He received his B.S.E.E. degree from University of Pennsylvania (1966) and Ph.D. in EE from the University of Illinois (1970).
 
Harvey served on ComSoc’s Board of Governors (a total of three terms) and the Computer Society's Governing Board.  He was ComSoc Treasurer for the previous four years.  Harvey was founder/first Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Network and founder/first General Chair and current Standing Committee Chair of IEEE INFOCOM.  He served on ComSoc’s Meetings & Conferences Board, Strategic Planning Committee, Awards Committee, Staff & Facilities Committee, and Nominations & Elections Committee.  In 2001, he was honored with the IEEE Communications Society’s Meetings & Conferences Exemplary Service Award.  Harvey is currently ComSoc’s Vice President – Technical Activities and founder of IEEE SECON.

 

Douglas N. Zuckerman (2000)

"For dedicated outstanding service on technical committees, symposia, Board of Governors, and as Director of Meetings and Conferences, Vice President Technical Activities and Vice President Membership Development."

Douglas N. Zuckerman [S'67-M'77-SM-'86-F'96] received his B.S., M.S., and Eng.Sc.D degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in 1969, 1971 and 1976. A Senior Research Scientist in Telcordia Technologies’ Broadband Networking Research Department, Doug has over 30 years experience spanning operations, management and engineering of emerging networks/services. An IEEE Fellow, he authored numerous papers, and was Guest Editor of several IEEE publications. He was co-founder/Chair of two technical committees - Enterprise Networking and Network Operations and Management. He organized numerous symposia, helped create the IEEE Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS), and was ComSoc’s Director of Meetings & Conferences and Vice President Technical Activities. Currently, he is Vice President Membership Development, leading activities to increase the relevance and value of the Communications Society to its members and the broader professional community.