Guérin named chair of Computer Science & Engineering​

Roch Guérin, PhD, has been named chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, effective July 1, 2013.

Roch Guérin

Guérin is the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunications Networks and professor of electrical and systems engineering and computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), where he has been on the faculty since 1998.

“I am delighted to welcome Roch Guérin to the School of Engineering & Applied Science,” says Ralph S. Quatrano, PhD, dean and the Spencer T. Olin Professor. “He has an exceptionally strong national and international reputation and visibility, not only for his research but for his experience in the private and entrepreneurial sectors. Coupled with his commitment to both undergraduate and graduate education, he will lead the department to partner with other educational and research initiatives within engineering and other departments on the Danforth and Medical campuses.”

The Department of Computer Science & Engineering has an exceptional reputation for interdisciplinary education, innovative research and exceptional faculty. One-third of its faculty has earned the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. With more than $5 million in annual research expenditures, together with the impact of its technology on industry and research, the placement of graduates and its close connection to the School of Medicine, the department has established an unmatched environment to train the next generation of leaders in computer engineering.

Guérin will succeed Jeremy Buhler, PhD, who has been interim chair since July 1, 2011, when former chair Gruia-Catalin Roman, PhD, became dean of engineering at the University of New Mexico. Buhler will continue as interim chair until Guérin’s arrival.

Guérin also will be named the Harold B. and Adelaide G. Welge Professor of Computer Science at Washington University. He expects to add several new faculty over the next two years.

Guérin is an international leader in the field of computer networking, both for his major research contributions and his dedication to serving the community. He is widely recognized for his contributions to understanding the fundamentals of data network design and how networks can be designed to provide desired quality of service guarantees. His work was among the earliest in this area and is credited with laying the foundation for later work. He also made early contributions in wireless and cellular networks.

From 2001-04, Guérin was on leave from Penn to start Ipsum Networks, which pioneered the concept of route analytics for managing IP networks.

Prior to joining the faculty at Penn, he was in a variety of technical and management positions at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

A Paris native, Guérin earned master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from ENST Paris.

He received the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) INFOCOM Achievement Award and the IEEE INFOCOM Best Paper Award in 2010; the IEEE Technical Committee on Computer Communications (TCCC) Outstanding Service Award in 2009 and was elected an IEEE Fellow in January 2001. He was elected an ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) Fellow in 2006, and received the IBM Outstanding Innovation Award in 1994.

He has published research in a variety of journals and served on advisory boards of international telecommunications companies. He is now on the scientific advisory board of Simula Research Laboratory in Norway.

Joe Ackerman, PhD, professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, headed the search committee that selected Guérin.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have attracted a computer scientist of Roch Guérin’s stature and accomplishments to Washington University,” Ackerman says. “He brings not only deep academic research credentials in the workings of networked systems and applications therein, but also knowledge of industry’s keen interest in this critically important arena gained from his years at the IBM Watson Research Center and as founder of Ipsum Networks. Familiar and comfortable with academic and corporate research cultures, Roch will leverage the best ideas from both worlds as he takes on the leadership of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.”

Other members of the search committee were Mark Anastasio, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering; Michael Brent, PhD, professor of computer science & engineering; Patrick Crowley, PhD, associate professor of computer science & engineering; Caitlin Kelleher, PhD, assistant professor, computer science & engineering; Chenyang Lu, PhD, professor of computer science & engineering; Arye Nehorai, PhD, the Eugene and Martha Lohman Professor and chair of electrical & systems engineering; Gary Stormo, the Joseph Erlanger Professor and professor of genetics, of biomedical engineering and of computer science & engineering; and Herbert “Skip” Virgin, MD, PhD, the Mallinckrodt Professor and head of Pathology and Immunology.