Peter M. Chen to serve as interim chair of computer science and engineering

Prof. Peter M. Chen, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will assume the role of Interim Chair of Computer Science and Engineering effective January 1, 2017. Prof. Chen succeeds Prof. Marios Papaefthymiou, who is departing Michigan to serve as Dean of the Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

Prof. Chen is an acclaimed researcher in the field of operating systems, where he has made substantial contributions on the topics of reliable memory, virtual machine security, and speculative execution for distributed file systems. His work has been recognized with thirteen best paper awards, including the 2015 ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award, which recognizes the most influential operating systems papers that were published at least ten years in the past, and the ACM-SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award. He has served on the program committees of many top conferences and is program co-chair for the 2017 Symposium on Operating Systems Principles. He was was editor-in-chief for ACM Transactions on Computer Systems from 2009 to 2013. Prof. Chen was the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award in 1996. He is a Fellow of the ACM and IEEE.

Prof. Chen is additionally regarded as an exceptional and innovative instructor. His passion for teaching has been recognized with multiple awards from the Department and the College of Eningeering, and in 2007 he was named a Thurnau Professor for his outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. He has been voted Eta Kappa Nu EECS Professor of the Year four times by EECS students.

Since 2002, Prof. Chen has served multiple terms on the Computer Science and Engineering Executive Committee. He has been an undergraduate advisor for computer science for many years, including as chief advisor from 2009 to 2016. Prof. Chen has been faculty advisor to the CSE Scholars student group from 2008 to the present. He directed the Software Systems Lab from 2001 until 2004.

Prof. Chen received his PhD in computer science from University of California, Berkeley in 1992 and joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1993. He is affiliated with the department’s Software Systems Lab and Computer Engineering Lab.