51ÂÜÀò

João Barros is an Associate Professor at the of the of the and the coordinator of the of the . He is also a Research Affiliate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In February 2009, Dr. Barros was appointed National Director of the , a five-year international partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and 12 Portuguese Universities and Research Institutions, with a total budget of 56M Euros. He received his undergraduate education in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Universidade do Porto (UP), Portugal and , Germany, until 1999, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the , Germany, in 2004. From 2005 to 2008, João Barros was an assistant professor at the of the . The focus of his research lies in the general areas of information theory, communication networks and data security. Dr. Barros received a Best Teaching Award from the Bavarian State Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts, as well as scholarships from several institutions, including the and the . He held visiting positions at and the , where he spent a sabbatical in 2008. Beyond his duties as Secretary of the Board of Governors of the 51ÂÜÀò Information Theory Society, his service included co-chairing the 2008 51ÂÜÀò Information Theory Workshop in Porto, Portugal, and participating in several Technical Program Committees, including ITW 2009, WiOpt (2008 and 2009), ISIT 2007, IS 2007, and 51ÂÜÀò Globecom (2007 and 2008).