Skip to main content
abstract blue background

About ComSoc

Prize
Plaque, certificate, and honorarium of US$1,000.

Description
Recognizes distinguished and significant contributions to education within the Society’s technical scope.

Eligibility
An IEEE Communications Society member at the time of the nomination who is an educator and also made distinguished and substantial contributions to education within the fields of interest of ComSoc. 

Frequency
Annually.  The award may not be presented if a suitable candidate has not been nominated.

Basis for Judging
Nominees shall be judged by a career of meritorious achievement as exemplified by the writing of scholarly books and texts, course materials, and papers on education; inspirational and innovative teaching; and creativity in the development of new curricula and methodology.

Nominee Solicitation and Selection Process

Nominations will be solicited each year, up to the nominations deadline decided by the Awards Committee. Nominations will be openly solicited. 

All nominations shall be submitted to the IEEE Communications Society Awards Committee for final selection. The selection process shall comply with procedures and regulations established in IEEE and ComSoc governing documents, in particular with IEEE Policy 4.4 on Award Limitations.

Schedule
Nominations will be solicited from June until 1 September unless otherwise noted via an open call on the ComSoc website. Nominations must then be submitted via the nomination form posted on the ComSoc website. Recipients will be notified by 15 October.

Presentation  
The award will be presented annually by the IEEE Communications Society Awards Committee Chair, in the name of the IEEE Communications Society at IEEE GLOBECOM. 

Publicity
The award will be publicized on the ComSoc website, magazine, newsletter, and Awards Luncheon brochure.

Administration and Funding  
The IEEE Communications Society will administer the award. Funding will be covered by the annual Society operating budget unless a suitable endowment is established. The Society's budget includes the amount of this award and the Society budget is net positive with the inclusion of the award.

Award Committee
The IEEE Communications Society Awards Committee will be responsible for the final selection. The committee consists of a chair (appointed by the President for a two-year term) and at least 12 members (appointed by the chair for a three-year term).

Deadline
Nominations due 1 September unless otherwise noted.

 

2023 Award Recipient

Nelson Fonseca

For outstanding contributions to education in communication networks

Nelson Fonseca

Nelson Fonseca received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from The University of Southern California in 1994. He is a Full Professor at the Institute of Computing of the University of Campinas, Brazil. He has published 450+ papers and supervised 80+ graduate students. Currently, he serves as ComSoc Vice President Conferences. He has also served as VP Technical and Educational, Activities, VP Publications, Vice President Member Relations, Director for Conference Development, Director of Latin America Region, and Director of On-Line Services.

Nelson served as ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer. He is the recipient of the 2020 IEEE Communications Society Harold Sobol Award for Exemplary Service to Meetings & Conferences and 2012 ComSoc Joseph LoCicero Award for Exemplary Service to Publications, the Medal of the Chancellor of the University of Pisa (2007), and the Elsevier Computer Network Journal Editor of the Year 2001 award. He is a Past EiC of IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials. Nelson created the ComSoc Conference Travel Grant, ComSoc Student
Competition Program, the IEEE Networking Letters, IEEE LATINCOM, IEEE Latincloud, IEEE NFV-SDN, and the series of Multimedia Communications Symposia in GLOBECOM/ICC. He was the General Chair for Globecom 2022 and technical chair for over 10 IEEE conferences, including IEEE ICC 2016. He chaired the Multimedia Communications TC and the Communications Systems Integration and Modeling TC.

PAST AWARD RECIPIENTS

2022 - No Award
2021 - Mohamed-Slim Alouini
2020 - Zhi Ding
2019 - Georgios B. Giannakis

2018 - Lajos Hanzo
2017 - Xuemin (Sherman) Shen
2016 - Michele Zorzi
2015 - Tarek S. El-Bawab