Biography:
En-hui Yang has been with the University of Waterloo since June 1997, where he is now a Professor and Canada Research Chair in information theory and its applications. He is a co-founder of SlipStream Data Inc. (now a subsidiary of BlackBerry), and the founder of BicDroid Inc. He currently also serves as an Executive Council Member of China Overseas Friendship Association, an Expert Advisor for the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of China, a Board Trustee of Huaqiao University, a member of IEEE Founders Medal Committee, and advisors for other national and provincial bodies. He served, inter alia, as a review panel member for the International Council for Science; a member of Presidential Nominating Committee of the Academy of Science of Royal Society of Canada; an Evaluator for the 2017 Japan Prize; and a general co-chair of the 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, the largest premier international conference on information theory in the world. Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2009, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2009, and a Fellow of IEEE in 2008, he is a recipient of several awards and honors, including the prestigious Inaugural Premier's Catalyst Award in 2007 for the Innovator of the Year; the 2007 Ernest C. Manning Award of Distinction, one of the Canada's most prestigious innovation prizes; the 2013 CPAC Professional Achievement Award; the 2014 IEEE Information Theory Society Padovani Lecture; and the 2014 FCCP Education Foundation Award of Merit. Products based on his early inventions and commercialized by his previous company, SlipStream, received the 2006 Ontario Global Traders Provincial Award. With over 230 papers and more than 230 patents/patent applications worldwide, his research work has benefited people over 170 countries through commercialized products, video coding open sources, and video coding standards. In 2011, he was selected for inclusion in Canadian Who’s Who.
