Science organization elects Army researcher as fellow

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — The American Association for the Advancement of Science elected an Army scientist as a 2020 fellow for his important contributions to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Dr. Cliff Wang, network sciences branch chief for the Army Research Office, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, now known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory, contributed to the field of science of security, outstanding leadership in national research and transforming results into high impact cyber defense capabilities.

“We’re excited to see Dr. Wang’s research contributions recognized at a global level,” said Dr. Randy Zachery, chief, Information Science Division, ARO. “His efforts to lead scientific discovery in the fifth warfighting domain, cyber, are essential for the Army to protect our long-term national security.”

The group is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom. Its council elected 489 members as new lifelong fellows. These individuals will be recognized for their contributions to science and technology during the February 2021 AAAS Annual Meeting.

Wang leads the Army’s extramural basic science research program to help establish scientific foundations of information assurance and to create new knowledge in the field. Through partnership with other federal funding agencies, research labs, academic institutions, and industry, his branch seeks to build revolutionary capabilities in communication networks, multi-agent network control, and social and information networks, to maintain U.S. superiority in network science and its dominance in innovation.

A graduate of North Carolina State University, Wang earned his doctorate in computer engineering in 1996. He has been conducting research in the area of computer vision, medical imaging, high speed networks and most recently information security. He has authored more than 60 technical papers and three Internet standards RFCs. He also authored/edited 20 books in the area of information security and holds four U.S. patents on information security system development.

Since 2003, Wang has been managing ARO’s extramural research portfolio in information assurance. In 2007, the Army promoted him to branch chief of Computing Sciences, while at the same time he managed his program in cybersecurity. He now serves as branch chief of Network Sciences.

Wang also holds adjunct professor appointments at both Department of Computer Science and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State University.

Additionally, Wang is an IEEE fellow and received the 2020 IEEE Big Data Security Pioneer Award.

AAAS fellows are elected each year by their peers serving on the Council of AAAS, the organization’s member-run governing body. The title recognizes important contributions to STEM disciplines, including pioneering research, leadership within a given field, teaching and mentoring, fostering collaborations, and advancing public understanding of science.

Previous AAAS Fellows include inventor Thomas Edison, sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois, anthropologist Margaret Mead, computer scientist Grace Hopper, physicist Steven Chu, and astronaut Ellen Ochoa.

In order to be considered for the rank of fellow, an AAAS member must be nominated by three previously elected fellows, the steering group of a AAAS section, or the organization’s CEO. Nominations go through a two-step review process, with steering groups reviewing nominations in their section and the AAAS Council voting on the final list.

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DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. As the Army’s corporate research laboratory, ARL is operationalizing science to achieve transformational overmatch. Through collaboration across the command’s core technical competencies, DEVCOM leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more successful at winning the nation’s wars and come home safely. DEVCOM is a major subordinate command of the Army Futures Command.