Sennur Ulukus is a Distinguished University Professor and the Anthony Ephremides Professor in Information Sciences and Systems in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland at College Park, where she also holds a joint appointment with the Institute for Systems Research (ISR). Prior to joining UMD, she was a Senior Technical Staff Member at AT&T Labs-Research. She received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB), Rutgers University, and the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bilkent University. Her research interests are in information theory, wireless communications, machine learning, signal processing and networks; with recent focus on private information retrieval, age of information, machine learning for wireless, distributed coded computing, group testing, physical layer security, energy harvesting communications, and wireless energy and information transfer.
Dr. Ulukus is a fellow of the IEEE, and a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher of the University of Maryland. She received the 2003 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award in Wireless Communications, the 2019 IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award, the 2020 IEEE Communications Society Women in Communications Engineering (WICE) Outstanding Achievement Award, the 2020 IEEE Communications Society Technical Committee on Green Communications and Computing (TCGCC) Distinguished Technical Achievement Recognition Award, a 2005 NSF CAREER Award, the 2011 ISR Outstanding Systems Engineering Faculty Award, and the 2012 ECE George Corcoran Outstanding Teaching Award. She was a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society for 2018-2019.
She is a Senior Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking (2020-present). She was an Area Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2019-2023), an Area Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking (2016-2020), an Editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications-Series on Green Communications and Networking (2015-2016), an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (2007-2010), and an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications (2003-2007). She was a Guest Editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory (2021, 2022, 2023), the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (2008, 2015, 2021, 2022), the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing (2021), Journal of Communications and Networks (2012), and the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (2011). She is the TPC chair of 2021 IEEE Globecom, and is a TPC co-chair of 2024 IEEE Globecom, 2024 IEEE DySPAN, 2023 IEEE MILCOM, 2019 IEEE ITW, 2017 IEEE ISIT, 2016 IEEE Globecom, 2014 IEEE PIMRC, and 2011 IEEE CTW.
Gunes Karabulut-Kurt is a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in New Frontiers in Space Communications and Professor at Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada. She is also an adjunct research professor at Carleton University, ON, Canada. Gunes is a Marie Curie Fellow and has received the Turkish Academy of Sciences Outstanding Young Scientist (TÜBA-GEBIP) Award in 2019. She received her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Ottawa, ON, Canada. She is serving as the chair of IEEE Satellite and Space Communications Technical Committee, the chair of the IEEE special interest group entitled “Satellite Mega-constellations: Communications and Networking” and also as an editor in 6 different IEEE journals. She is a member of the IEEE WCNC Steering Board and a Distinguished Lecturer of Vehicular Technology Society Class of 2022. Her research interests include multi-functional space networks, space security, and wireless testbed.