Robert S. Fish: Candidate for IEEE Division III Director

It is an honor to be nominated for Division III Director.   Communications and networking are at the core of our profession, and I welcome the challenge of representing our interests and expertise in the larger IEEE.   IEEE faces a rapidly changing environment over the next few years and I suggest facing issues boldly and aggressively.   Open Access for publications, Virtual conferences, and membership retention and growth amidst a volatile global economic climate present both challenges and opportunities for IEEE.   We need to view these changes positively, and respond rapidly with approaches that focus on creating new products, structural innovation within IEEE, and creating positive value (while containing costs) for current and new members.

Having previously served on the IEEE BoD, I know the challenges that the Division III Director will face.   If elected, I will emphasize a full innovation lifecycle approach to IEEE’s activities:  addressing important emerging technologies, fostering high quality research, and providing leadership in translating emerging technologies into standards, open source, and educational activities that benefit IEEE membership, industry and academia, and humanity. 



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Robert S. Fish is an IEEE Fellow and a faculty member in the Computer Science Department of Princeton University.  He is also President of NETovations, LLC, a consulting company focused on innovation for communications and networking technologies. From 2007 to 2010, he was Chief Product Officer and Senior VP at Mformation, Inc. a startup company specializing in carrier software for mobile device management.  From 1997 to 2007, Rob was Vice President and Managing Director of Panasonic US R&D laboratories working on embedding networking into consumer devices.   Prior to this, he was Executive Director, Multimedia Communications Research at Bellcore/Telcordia where he pioneered informal video communications and presence mechanisms. He started his career at Bell Laboratories.  Besides his many publications, Dr. Fish has been awarded 17 patents.  He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Rob is a long term ComSoc and IEEE volunteer.  In ComSoc, Rob was recently the VP of Industry and Standards and prior to that, VP of Standards, and a MaL on the BoG for two terms.  In IEEE, Rob is a member of the IEEE BoD, Vice-chair of the IEEE Industry Engagement Committee, and a member of the IEEE Strategy and Alignment committee.  He was appointed by current IEEE President Fukuda to the IEEE ad-hoc on membership dues.  

Currently, as President of the IEEE Standards Association, he pioneered bringing research and applied engineering together to the benefit of both.   Industry consortia have come to ComSoc for the development of their standards, and ComSoc research events like the 5G Forum have been offered globally.  While he was VP, the number of standards projects in ComSoc rose by almost an order of magnitude as industrial and academic researchers worked together to develop and govern ComSoc Standards Working Groups and Standards committees.

In conferences, Dr. Fish worked to balance ComSoc events so that all ComSoc members, researchers and practitioners, benefited from membership and participation.  He chaired the GLOBECOM and ICC Management and Strategy Committee (GIMS), reforming the site selection process to make it geographically fair and transparent.  He was co-founder and steering committee chair of the Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (IEEE-CCNC) and served on the founding Steering Committee of the Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (IEEE-CSCN).   He founded the IEEE ComFutures event, which brings high quality communications and networking knowledge to the interested public.  

In IEEE Technical Activities and Publications, Rob served on the TAB Conferences Committee and created and chaired the TA Committee on Standards.  He helped to create IEEE ComSoc Communications Standards Magazine and co-edited a series in IEEE Communications Magazine on IEEE Standards in Communications and Networking. 

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