A Message from the Computer Society About COVID-19

By Leila De Floriani, President, IEEE Computer Societyand Melissa Russell, Executive Director, IEEE Computer Society

By Leila De Floriani, President, IEEE Computer Society on

March 20, 2020

Leila De Floriani - Candidate

Dear IEEE Computer Society Members,

The World Health Organization officially declared the novel coronavirus COVID-19 a pandemic. This global health crisis is a daunting challenge that has impacted all members of our community. We would like to express our deep concern and offer our encouragement for all who are affected by this outbreak.

Governments around the world are issuing restrictions on travel and gatherings in an effort to limit and slow the spread of the virus. The health and safety of the members of our community is our first priority and the IEEE Computer Society is supporting these efforts.

Over the past several months, our volunteers and our professional conference staff have been keeping pace with local, regional and national travel and large gathering restrictions and guidelines. They have effectively ensured that all financially sponsored Computer Society conferences through May have been either successfully rescheduled for later in the year, or are being held virtually. Conference organizers and staff will continue working together to best re-position conferences scheduled after May.

Through these challenging times, all Computer Society regular operations are continuing. Staff will support members, volunteers and Society programs while teleworking from their homes, for their own safety and well-being. Our Society’s physical offices in California and Washington, DC, like all IEEE offices in the U.S., will be staffed by only a few essential personnel to minimize risk.

We know that many of you are contributing substantially to the fight against this virus. To thank and recognize you for this awesome and incredibly important work, we ask you to share what you and your fellow researchers, technologists, engineers and scientists are doing, using one of the following methods: