Raouf Boutaba - 2023/2024

Since joining Waterloo in 1999, as a professor of computer science, Dr. Raouf Boutaba has held several academic appointments within the Faculty of Mathematics, including associate dean of Research from 2016 to 2019 and associate dean of Innovation and Entrepreneurship from 2019 to 2020 .  He is now the director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science, a position that was renewed for a four-year term beginning July 1, 2024. His many awards include being named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and University Research Chair. 

Dr. 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 is revolutionizing the way communication networks are designed, operated and managed. The papers that Dr. Boutaba his students and collaborators have published have been cited more than 36,000 times with an h-index of 76 as of February 2024,according to Google Scholar.  

Over his career at Waterloo, Dr. 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, which include three Best Dissertation Awards, two Alumni Gold Medals, the Mathematics Doctoral Prize and the inaugural David R. Cheriton Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award.  

A common refrain in the letters submitted by Dr. 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.