Dr. Roberto Di Pietro, Professor of Cybersecurity, Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU) College of Science and Engineering (CSE), has been named Fellow of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE).

Dr. Di Pietro received this honor “for contributions to the security of distributed systems,” based on a body of work developed over his 25-year career that comprises research in the fields of AI-driven cyber-security, distributed systems security and resilience, and critical infrastructure protection. 

He is the first active HBKU faculty member to receive IEEE Fellow status.

“I am honored and humbled to have been elected as an IEEE Fellow, and I want to share this achievement with all the students, colleagues, and friends who contributed to making this possible. I’d especially like to thank HBKU for its unyielding support for my research. Moving forward, my objectives are to continue achieving excellence in systems security and resilience, address both fundamental and applied challenges in the field, and generate innovation," said Dr. Di Pietro.

Dr. Di Pietro is also an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Distinguished Scientist, an accolade he received in 2019 “for his outstanding scientific contributions to computing.” In addition to his role at HBKU, he also works as Editor in Chief for the academic journal Secure Communications and Network (Wiley-Hindawi) and is part of the Scientific Advisory Board of foreign universities. Previously, he served as Global Head of Cybersecurity Research for Bell Labs (Alcatel-Lucent/Nokia).

The IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology. Election to the grade of IEEE Fellow is an exclusive honor bestowed upon IEEE members in recognition of technical, educational, and leadership achievements. Each year, less than 0.1% of the 400,000-plus IEEE voting members can receive Fellow status, making it a prestigious honor and a milestone achievement for any engineer.