Zhang named ACM Fellow

By Jane Stoyle Welch

"To be selected as a Fellow is to join our most renowned member grade and an elite group that represents less than 1 percent of ACM’s overall membership,” explains ACM President Vicki L. Hanson. “The Fellows program allows us to shine a light on landmark contributions to computing, as well as the men and women whose hard work, dedication, and inspiration are responsible for groundbreaking work that improves our lives in so many ways."

“We congratulate Aidong on receiving this well-deserved recognition. Besides her outstanding academic achievements, Aidong has made substantial contributions to our Department of Computer Science and Engineering, as well as UB as a whole. She is no doubt a role model for many of us, especially woman faculty in computer science and engineering. We are very proud to have her as a colleague,” said Chunming Qiao, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Zhang’s current research focuses on developing machine learning and data mining approaches to modeling and analysis of structured (that can be easily organized into a traditional database format of columns and rows) and unstructured (such as images, blog posts, voicemail, email, and other materials that exist in less predictable formats) data. Her work has applications to a number of fields, including social networks, geographical information systems, bioinformatics, medicine, and health informatics.

Her research straddles multiple disciplines, and she has a strong track record of collaboration with faculty across the University at Buffalo, from biology, biomedical informatics, chemistry, geography, medicine, pharmaceutical sciences, biochemistry, and biostatistics.

A prolific scholar, Zhang has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications. She has obtained over $15 million in research funding from agencies including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force, among others.

She is also an elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), where she was recognized for her contributions to multimedia data analysis in 2009.

In 2015, Zhang took a leave from UB to serve as a program director in the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, Information and Intelligent Systems Division. Prior to this appointment, Zhang chaired UB’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering for six years.

She was named a SUNY Distinguished Professor, the highest academic rank for any faculty member in the State University of New York system, in 2014.

ACM will formally recognize its 2017 Fellows at the annual Awards Banquet, to be held in San Francisco on June 23, 2018. Additional information about the 2017 ACM Fellows, and the awards event, as well as previous ACM Fellows and award winners, is available on the ACM website.

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.

The ACM Fellows Program, initiated in 1993, celebrates the exceptional contributions of the leading members in the computing field.  These individuals have helped to enlighten researchers, developers, practitioners and end users of information technology throughout the world.