Ecole Polytechnique: Thomas Clausen joins the IEEE Computer Society’s Distinguished contributors

Thomas Clausen, a professor at Ecole Polytechnique and a researcher at the Laboratoire d’Informatique de l’X (LIX*) focusing on computer networks, has been awarded the honorary title of Distinguished Contributor by the Computer Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a historic learned society focusing on electronics, computer science, engineering and bioengineering. “I am honoured to receive this recognition from a top international scientific society. What I particularly appreciate is that this award is based on peer review of my contributions over the years. To be recognised in this way suggests to me that these contributions have been useful to the community,” he explains.

Although he leads a research group in computer networking at the École Polytechnique and holds the Chair in “Internet technologies and engineering” (the result of joint work with the company Cisco), Thomas remains modest: “You are rarely recognised for a single work, and you rarely advance science alone. In my case, I would say that I was lucky enough to, early in my career, get to work with incredible colleagues such as Philippe Jacquet at Inria, on exciting projects — and I have been extremely lucky to be able to continue to develop exciting and impactful projects with incredible peers from academia and industry, such a Cedric Lavenu (EDF), Mark Townsley (Cisco), and Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes (Ecole Polytechnique) – and of course all my incredible students over the years”.

For Thomas Clausen, the Chair he created is a good example of collaboration. The happenings of conferences led him to meet and work with an American researcher at Cisco… who was based in Paris! From these interactions came successive research collaborations, which in turn interested students at the École Polytechnique, and this effervescence was formalised with the creation of a Chair.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a historical learned society, focusing on electronics, computer science, engineering and bioengineering. It is a hub of exchange for its 410,000 members, publishing in the most prestigious scientific journals and structuring exchanges between academic researchers and industry experts. For its 75th anniversary, the IEEE computer society has named its first “distinguished contributors”, to recognise and highlight the work of its most eminent members.