Members Select Jim Isaak as 2009 President-Elect

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 9 October, 2008 — Jim Isaak was voted 2009 president-elect, John Walz first vice president, and Alan Clements second vice president in this year’s IEEE Computer Society election, which saw increased turnout and higher popularity of online ballots.

Isaak, a current Computer Society Board of Governors member and an IEEE Board of Directors member between 2003 and 2005, will serve as the Computer Society’s 2010 president. He campaigned on a platform of providing timely, quality technical information, attracting the next generation of technologists, phasing out financial dependence on subscriptions, and fully leveraging the Computer Society’s relationship with IEEE.

An information technology professor at Southern New Hampshire University, Isaak garnered 4,234 votes (52.4 percent) to Sorel Reisman’s 3,827 (47.3 percent). A total of 8,300 ballots were cast, with online ballots (5,757) outnumbering paper ballots (2,543) by more than two to one. The participation rate was 12.06 percent, up from 9.66 percent last year.

Former AT&T and Lucent manager Walz, the IEEE Computer Society vice president for standards activities, was elected 2009 first vice president with 4,113 votes (51.5 percent) to Jon Rokne’s 3,853 (48.2 percent).

Alan Clements, editor in chief of the Computer Society Press and a computer architecture professor at England’s University of Teesside, won 5,343 votes (66.8 percent) to Antonio Doria’s 2,634 (32.9 percent) to win the honor of serving as 2009 second vice president.

The seven top vote-getters for seats on the 2009-2011 Board of Governors include:

  • Elisa Bertino, a Purdue University computer science professor (5,952 votes);
  • Ann DeMarle, assistant professor and director of the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College (5,873 votes)
  • David Alan Grier, associate dean at George Washington University (4,942 votes)
  • George V. Cybenko, the Dorothy and Walter Gramm Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth College (4,498 votes)
  • David S. Ebert, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University (4,469 votes)
  • Hironori Kasahara, professor of computer science at Tokyo’s Waseda University (4,116 votes); and
  • Steven L. Tanimoto, a computer science and engineering professor at the University of Washington (3,895 votes).

“On behalf of the IEEE Computer Society, I congratulate the winners and thank all candidates for their willingness to be considered,” said Rangachar Kasturi, 2008 Computer Society president. “I look forward to working with everyone in the coming years.”

Each year, Computer Society members vote for the next year’s president-elect, first and second vice presidents, and seven members of the Board of Governors. The president and vice presidents each serve a one-year active term, while the 21 Board of Governors members serve three-year terms, rotating in groups of seven. The three presidents—incoming, active, and outgoing—work together in setting policy and making operational decisions. The active president is responsible for heading the annual Board of Governors meetings and for addressing major issues affecting the organization during the year.

Susan (Kathy) Land, CSDP, principal software and systems engineer with MITRE, who was named president-elect in the 2007 election, is in line to serve as the Computer Society’s active president after Kasturi’s term ends in December.

About the Computer Society

With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 39 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology, and is known globally for its computing standards activities.

The Computer Society serves the information and career-development needs of today’s computing researchers and practitioners with technical journals, magazines, conferences, books, conference publications, and online courses. Its Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) program for mid-career professionals and Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) credential for recent college graduates confirm the skill and knowledge of those working in the field. The CS Digital Library (CSDL) is an excellent research tool, containing more than 250,000 articles from 1,600 conference proceedings and 26 CS periodicals going back to 1988.