Dr. Wei Zhao Professor of Computer Science Dean of Science

Wei Zhao is currently the Dean of the School of Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Before he joined RPI in 2007, he was a Senior Associate Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University. Between 2005 and 2007, he also served as the Director for the Division of Computer and Network Systems in the National Science Foundation. He completed his undergraduate program in physics at Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China, in 1977. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1983 and 1986, respectively. During his career, he has also been a faculty member at Amherst College, the University of Adelaide, and Texas A&M University.

As an IEEE Fellow, Wei Zhao has made significant contributions in distributed computing, real-time systems, computer networks, and cyber space security. His research group has been recognized by receiving various awards and prizes, including the outstanding paper award from the IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, the best paper award from the IEEE National Aerospace and Electronics Conference, an award on technology transfer from the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency, and the 2nd prize in the international ACM student research contest. Dr. Zhao is an inventor for two U.S. patents and has published over 250 papers in journals, conferences, and book chapters.

Wei Zhao has had extensive administration experience in higher education and research management. At Texas A&M University, prior to serving as Senior Associate Vice President for Research from 2001-2006, he served as the head of the Department of Computer Science between 1997 and 2001. During this period of time, the funding for sponsored research quadrupled and an undergraduate program was ranked the 17th in a national survey. During his assignment at the National Science Foundation, funding of his division increased 20%, the dwell time performance improved 24%, and the number of submitted proposals increased by 14%.

Wei Zhao has also been active in professional services. He has served on editorial boards of technical journals, including the IEEE Transactions on Computers and the IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems. He is the chair for the IEEE Technical Committee of Real-Time Systems. He has chaired more than ten international conferences including the IEEE Real-Time Technology and Applications Symposia, the IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposia, and the IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems.

Since the 1980's, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students have come to the United States to work and study. Among them, Wei Zhao is one of the few who have served as a senior research and education administrator in a U.S. research comprehensive university and a senior executive officer within a U.S. federal government agency. Dr. Zhao has continued to actively engage in various activities for education and research exchange with the People's Republic of China. He was the founding chair of the U.S.-China Dragon Star Committee, Overseas Advisory Committee for Shanghai Jiao Tong University Electronics and Information Technology College, and Overseas Advisory Committee for the Higher Education Press (in the field of Computer Science). He has served as Overseas Advisor for Shaanxi Normal University, Vice Executive Editor for the Chinese Science Bulletin, and as guest and honorary professors for several universities. In 2005, he was awarded the lifetime achievement award by the Chinese Association of Science and Technology (CAST USA). In October 2007, he will be honored with the Overseas Achievement Award by the Chinese Computer Federation.