Professor Debasis Mitra was recently elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This honor, which was established in 1874, recognizes the extraordinary achievements of scientists, engineers, and innovators across a wide range of disciplines, “from research, teaching, and technology, to administration in academia, industry and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public.” He will be virtually inducted on February 13, 2021.
Debasis Mitra, senior research scientist in the department of electrical engineering and adjunct professor of electrical engineering, was cited for his “distinguished contributions to the field of networks and systems, particularly for mathematical modeling, design and optimization” in the Information, Computing, and Communication category.
Mitra’s current research is in the scientific foundations of policy that impacts engineers and engineering systems, and in exploring organizational and individual interactions via models and analyses. He teaches a graduate course on “Internet Economics, Engineering and the Implications for Society”. Mitra joined Columbia Engineering as professor of electrical engineering in 2013, after 44 years at Bell Labs where he served as head of the Mathematical Sciences Research Center for eight years, and as Vice President in the Chief Scientist’s Office. His research was in applied probability, stochastic networks, networking and industrial organizations.
A member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Bell Labs Fellow, and a Life Fellow of the IEEE, Mitra has authored more than 100 journal publications and holds over 20 patents. He is a recipient of the 2012 ACM SIGMETRICS Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2012 Arne Jensen Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Teletraffic Congress, a co-recipient of the 1998 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award with the citation "For the conception and development of voice echo cancelers," the 1993 Steven O. Rice Prize Paper Award and the 1982 Guillemin-Cauer Prize Paper Award of the IEEE, among other awards.
He has served on the editorial boards of several journals, including the ACM/IEEE Transactions on Networking, and Operations Research. He served on National Academies panels for technical assessment of the Army Research Laboratory during 2009-2015, and on the Air Force Studies Board during 2006-2010.
