Hajiaghayi Named IEEE Fellow
A noted researcher in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) is being recognized by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his work in algorithmic graph theory and algorithmic game theory.
Mohammad T. Hajiaghayi, the Jack and Rita G. Minker Professor of Computer Science, has been named to the 2020 class of IEEE Fellows. This is the highest grade of IEEE membership, and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.
Hajiaghayi is one of 282 researchers worldwide that were just named IEEE Fellows. They will be formally honored at the IEEE Vision, Innovation, and Challenges Summit, to be held on May 15, 2020 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Aravind Srinivasan, a professor of computer science with an appointment in UMIACS, says he nominated Hajiaghayi for the IEEE award because of his excellent work and dedication to both his field and colleagues.
“Mohammad has made voluminous research contributions to several areas, including algorithmic graph theory and algorithmic game theory,” says Srinivasan, who received the IEEE Fellow status himself in 2010. “In addition, he has an exceptional record of leadership, contributions and service to the computing community at large.”
Hajiaghayi’s research and scholarship involves algorithmic game theory and combinatorial auctions, network design, combinatorial optimizations and approximation algorithms, fixed-parameter algorithms, algorithmic graph theory, distributed and mobile computing, and computational geometry and embeddings. Part of this work takes place in the University of Maryland Center for Machine Learning, where he is active as a researcher and educator.
Previous awards and honors include being named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2019, being elected an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow in 2018, a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, a Google Faculty Research award (twice), an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the University of Maryland (UMD) Research and Scholarship Award (RASA), the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) Nerode Prize, the UMD Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year award, and ACM’s International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Coach Award.
He has also won best paper awards at the ACM Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA) 2010, the International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC) 2006, and the Robocup 2001 Conference.
Before joining UMD, Hajiaghayi was a senior researcher in the Algorithms and Theoretical Computer Science group at AT&T Labs.
Prior to that, he was a one-year postdoctoral fellow in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and a one-year postdoctoral associate at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), where he also earned his doctorate in applied mathematics in 2005.
Hajiaghayi received his Master of Science degree in computer science from the University of Waterloo in 2001 and his undergraduate degree in computer engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 2000.
In addition to his position at UMD, Hajiaghayi holds a research affiliate position in CSAIL. He is also a permanent member of the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) at Rutgers University.
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About the IEEE Fellows Program
IEEE Fellow status is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one-percent of the total voting membership.
The IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 400,000 plus members in 160 countries, the association is a prominent authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics.