Professor Raouf Boutaba, Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science, has received the Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision, a recognition conferred annually since 2005 by Waterloo’s Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs in collaboration with the Graduate Student Association.
Nomination for the award is based on submissions from former graduate students. In addition to the honour, recipients also receive a $1,000 cash prize.
“Congratulations to Raouf on winning the Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision,” said Mark Giesbrecht, Professor of Computer Science and Dean of Mathematics. “I have seen firsthand the exceptional mentorship and guidance he has provided to a generation of graduate students, many of whom have won prestigious academic awards of excellence themselves and are now leaders in industry and academia.”
Since
joining
Waterloo
in
1999
as
a
professor
of
computer
science,
Raouf
Boutaba
has
held
a
number
of
academic
appointments
including
Associate
Dean
of
Research
from
2016
to
2019
and
Associate
Dean
of
Innovation
and
Entrepreneurship
from
2019
to
2020,
both
in
the
Faculty
of
Mathematics.
Since
2020
he
has
been
the
Director
of
the
Cheriton
School
of
Computer
Science.
His
many
awards
include
being
named
a
Fellow
of
the
Institute
of
Electrical
and
Electronics
Engineers,
Fellow
of
the
Royal
Society
of
Canada,
and
being
named
a
University
Research
Chair.
Professor
Boutaba
is
known
for
his
pioneering
contributions
to
automated
management,
which
led
directly
to
the
trend
toward
autonomic
networking,
and
for
his
groundbreaking
work
on
network
virtualization
and
network
softwarization
that
are
revolutionizing
the
way
communication
networks
are
designed,
operated
and
managed.
The
papers
he,
his
students
and
collaborators
have
published
have
been
cited
more
than
36,100
times
with
an
h-index
of
77
as
of
March 2024
according
to
Google
Scholar.
Professor
Boutaba
is
one
of
three
faculty
members
at
Waterloo
to
receive
the prestigious Award
of
Excellence
in
Graduate
Supervision
in
2024.
Over his career at the University of Waterloo, Professor Boutaba has supervised 24 doctoral and 47 master’s students and has advised 17 postdoctoral researchers. Five of his former PhD students have received prestigious awards for their dissertations, among them three Best Dissertation Awards, two Alumni Gold Medals, the Mathematics Doctoral Prize, and the inaugural David R. Cheriton Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award.
A refrain common in the letters submitted by Professor Boutaba’s nominators note that he is a supportive and dedicated supervisor who puts the interests of his graduate students ahead of his own, a mentor who instills upon his students the importance of diligence, technical excellence and rigour in research, and who helps them build the confidence to explore interesting ideas both independently and collaboratively.