01-19-2022

The Department of Computer Science faculty member and associate department head, Professor Ninghui Li, is among the 70 distinguished computer scientists named 2021 fellows by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The ACM Fellows program recognizes the top 1% of the association’s membership for outstanding accomplishments in computing and information technology and/or outstanding service to ACM and the larger computing community. It is ACM’s most prestigious member grade. Fellows are nominated by their peers, with nominations reviewed by a distinguished selection committee.

Ninghui Li, Samuel D. Conte Professor of Computer Science, was recognized “For contributions to data privacy, access control, and trust management.” 

Li is a well-known researcher and leader with high impact research and technology contributions to data privacy and security. On data privacy, Li has made multiple important contributions, both on theoretical foundations of privacy notions, and on practical yet privacy-rigorous data publishing methods.

Additionally, Li is an IEEE Fellow and a Fellow of The Center for Education and Research in
Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS). He joined Purdue University’s Department of Computer Science faculty in 2003 and he earned his PhD in Computer Science from New York University in 2000.

He holds various leadership roles in the field of computer science and security. He was Chair of ACM Special Interest Group on Security Audit and Control (SIGSAC) from 2017-2021.  Additionally, he is the editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS) and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Computer Security (JCS) and ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (TOIT).

“Computing professionals have brought about leapfrog advances in how we live, work, and play,” said ACM President Gabriele Kotsis. “New technologies are the result of skillfully combining the individual contributions of numerous men and women, often building upon diverse contributions that have emerged over decades. But technological progress would not be possible without the essential building blocks of individual contributors. The ACM Fellows program honors the creativity and hard work of ACM members whose specific accomplishments make broader advances possible. In announcing a new class of Fellows each year, we celebrate the impact ACM Fellows make, as well as the many technical areas of computing in which they work.”

In keeping with ACM’s global reach, the 2021 Fellows represent universities, corporations, and research centers in Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, and the United States. 

The contributions of the 2021 Fellows run the gamut of the computing field―including cloud database systems, deep learning acceleration, high performance computing, robotics, and theoretical computer science ―to name a few.

Additional information about the 2021 ACM Fellows, as well as previously named ACM Fellows, is available through the ACM Fellows website.

About the Department of Computer Science at Purdue University

Founded in 1962, the Department of Computer Science was created to be an innovative base of knowledge in the emerging field of computing as the first degree-awarding program in the United States. The department continues to advance the computer science industry through research. US News & Reports ranks Purdue CS #20 and #18 overall in graduate and undergraduate programs respectively, ninth in both software engineering and cybersecurity, 14th in programming languages, 13th in computing systems, and 24th in artificial intelligence. Graduates of the program are able to solve complex and challenging problems in many fields. Our consistent success in an ever-changing landscape is reflected in the record undergraduate enrollment, increased faculty hiring, innovative research projects, and the creation of new academic programs. The increasing centrality of computer science in academic disciplines and society, and new research activities - centered around data science, artificial intelligence, programming languages, theoretical computer science, machine learning, and cybersecurity - are the future focus of the department. cs.purdue.edu

Writer: Emily Kinsell, emily@purdue.edu

Source: Ninghui Li, ninghui@purdue.edu