Farnam Jahanian has been named the first Chair of the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) division of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, effective July 1, 2008. He served as Interim Chair of CSE since June 2007 and was named Chair of CSE after a national search.

Professor Jahanian received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the faculty at U-M in 1993, after four years as a research team member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.

Professor Jahanian brings to the position extensive administrative and organizational experience, a strong entrepreneurial approach to research, an innovative spirit and in-depth knowledge of present computing practices. His groundbreaking work on Internet infrastructure and security became the basis for the highly successful international company, Arbor Networks, Inc., which he co-founded in 2001, has served as President, and for which he currently serves as Chairman.

Professor Jahanian’s research has revolutionized how cyber threats are addressed by today’s Internet Service Providers and has been transformational by significantly closing costly delay between onset of security attacks and their resolution. Professor Jahanian’s research team during the 1990s demonstrated fundamental limitations in the core routing architecture of the Internet by uncovering the fragility of the underlying routing infrastructure. The group’s seminal work on Internet routing stability and convergence has been highly influential within both the network research community and the Internet operational community and was recently recognized with the ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Award.

Professor Jahanian is an enthusiastic supporter of students and their academic and non-academic activities. He has received several awards specifically for excellence in teaching including the Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) Professor of the Year Award, voted on by EECS undergraduate students, the Amoco Teaching Award, and the U-M College of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award. He is enthusiastic about encouraging students in their entrepreneurial endeavors, and frequently lectures on the topic.

The author of over 80 published research papers, Professor Jahanian has served on dozens of advisory boards and government panels in recent years, including Internet2’s External Relations Advisory Council, the National Advisory Board for U-M Office of Technology Transfer, and the ITZone Advisory Board. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an IBM Outstanding Technical Innovation Award, and the 2005 Governor's University Award for Commercialization Excellence.