Dr. Halim Yanikomeroglu: Biography

Halim Yanikomeroglu (FIEEE, FEIC, FCAE, FAAIA) was born in Giresun, Turkey. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1990, and the M.A.Sc. degree in electrical engineering (now ECE) and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1992 and 1998, respectively.

During 1993–1994, he was with the R&D Group of Marconi Kominikasyon A.S., Ankara, Turkey. Since 1998 he has been with the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, where he is now a Chancellor's Professor. He is also the Director of Carleton University Non-Terrestrial Networks (CU-NTN) Lab. His research interests cover many aspects of wireless communications systems and networks. Dr. Yanikomeroglu has supervised 29 PhD and 30 MASc students (all completed with theses); several of his PhD students received the Carleton University Senate Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis. He has coauthored 650+ published peer-reviewed research papers including ~320 papers in 31 different IEEE journals; these publications have received 27,000+ citations (h-index: 70). He gives on average 20+ keynotes, seminars, tutorials, and panel talks every year; some of his recent talks are avilable at his YouTube channel. Dr. Yanikomeroglu’s collaborative research with industry (including the leading players in the ICT domain) resulted in 40 granted patents.

Dr. Yanikomeroglu is a Fellow of the IEEE with the citation “for contributions to wireless access architectures in cellular networks”, a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA), and an Expert Panelist of the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA|CAC). He is a Distinguished Speaker for the IEEE Communications Society and the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society on 5G/6G wireless technologies. Dr. Yanikomeroglu is currently serving as a Member of IEEE ComSoc Governence Council (2023-2025), IEEE ComSoc Conference Council (2022-2025), and IEEE ComSoc GIMS (2023-2025). He has been involved in the organization of the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) from its inception in 1998 in various capacities including serving as a Executive Committee member and the Technical Program Chair or Co-Chair of WCNC 2004 (Atlanta), WCNC 2008 (Las Vegas), and WCNC 2014 (Istanbul); currently, he is serving as the Chair of the WCNC Steering Committee (2019-2024). He is also a Member of the Steering Committees of a number of conferences including IEEE PIMRC (International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, 2019-2027), IEEE Future Networks World Forum (FNWF, since 2010), and ICTC (International Conference on ICT Convergence). He was the General Co-Chair of the IEEE 72^nd Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC 2010-Fall) held in Ottawa, and the General Chair of the IEEE 86^th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC 2017-Fall) held in Toronto. He has served in the editorial boards of the IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials; he also guest-edited several special issues in IEEE periodicals. He was the Chair of the IEEE’s Technical Committee on Personal Communications (now called Wireless Communications Technical Committee with 1,500+ members).

Dr. Yanikomeroglu is a recipient of the IEEE Communications Society Satellite Communications Technical Recognition Award in 2023, IEEE Communications Society Fred W. Ellersick Prize in 2021, IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Stuart Meyer Memorial Award in 2020, and IEEE Communications Society Wireless Communications Technical Committee Recognition Award in 2018. He is also a recipient of the IEEE Ottawa Section Outstanding Service Award in 2018, the IEEE Ottawa Section Outstanding Educator Award in 2014, Carleton University Faculty Graduate Mentoring Award in 2010, the Carleton University Graduate Students Association Excellence Award in Graduate Teaching in 2010, and the Carleton University Research Achievement Award in 2009 and 2018. Dr. Yanikomeroglu received best paper awards at IEEE Comptetion on Non-Terrestrial Networks for B5G and 6G in 2022, IEEE International Conference in Communications (ICC) 2021 and IEEE Conference on Wireless for Space & Extreme Environments (WISEE) 2021 and 2022. Dr. Yanikomeroglu spent the 2011–2012 academic year at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey, as a Visiting Professor. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Yanikomeroglu and his wife Dr. Berna Akcakir have three children: Erdem (BEng in Computer Systems Engineering), Sezgi (third year, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto), and Esin (third year, Health Sciences, Western University).

(Last update: 22 October 2024)