We are very excited to announce the list of “N2Women: Rising Stars in Computer Networking and Communications”.
For 2023, in alphabetical order by last name, here are 10 women in networking and communications that you should watch!
 | Dinh-Thuy Phan Huy Orange, France Dinh-Thuy PHAN HUY has made outstanding contributions to signal and antenna processing for energy-efficient wireless communications, with major applications to beamforming, time-reversal focusing, spatial modulation, backscattering, zero-energy devices, and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. She has conceived, established, and led several collaborative research projects on designing, engineering, and realizing proof-of-concept implementations for these technologies. Over the years, she has co-authored more than 15 journal papers, 45 conference papers, 40 patents, and she has been the co-recipient of 4 best paper awards from the IEEE and EURASIP. Dinh-Thuy is also a committed and long-term volunteer of the IEEE Communications Society. Notably, she is a Technical Editor for the IEEE Wireless Communication Magazine, an Industry Liaison Officers for the Emerging Technology Initiative on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces, and an IEEE Senior Member. For her pioneering and sustained research contributions to wireless communications, she has received prestigious individual distinctions and recognitions, including the 2018 Prix-Irène Joliot Curie from the French Ministry of Research and Higher Education, the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Technology, as well as the 2018 Ferrié Prize from the French Society of Electricity, Electronics and Information and Communication technologies. Considering the momentum and impact of Dinh-Thuy’s research work, she is in the best position to make an ever stronger impact in the years to come. Marco Di Renzo, CNRS Research Director & Head of iPhyCom Group Laboratory of Signals and Systems CNRS – CentraleSupélec - Paris-Saclay University Paris, France |
 | Basak Guler UC Riverside, USA Basak has been a rising star since her graduate student days with fundamental and early contributions to multiple fields in communications, information theory and more recently machine learning. Her contributions are diverse and span physical layer design, fundamental limits of networked communications and distributed learning algorithms. Her early work in interference alignment for small cells is impactful for 5G and beyond systems. Her work in multiple access systems and joint source channel coding are timely and fundamental. I would especially like to point out her innovative approach to semantics aware networks long before this area picked up with the earliest papers in semantic compression and semantic communications which will continue to impact the future of communications. Now at the intersection of communications and machine learning, her work in privacy preserving distributed learning continues to shine, in which she has received the NSF CAREER award. Basak is extremely deserving of this wonderful recognition and I am very proud of being part of her journey into academia. Prof. Aylin Yener, Roy and Lois Chope Chair in Engineering, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University |
 | Shubham Jain Stony Brook University, USA Dr Jain is an expert in designing and using novel sensing techniques for highly creative applications. For example, her work shows how to capture micro movements using shoe-mounted sensors, detect unvoiced speech using a ear-mounted sensor, and study movement quality in the rehabilitation domain using arm-mounted sensors. Going beyond research, Dr Jain cares deeply about mentorship. In 2016, she started the student mentorship program at ACM MobiCom that pairs up researchers with Ph.D. students to provide critical mentorship. Dr Jain is indeed a rising star and is very well deserving of this award. Aruna Balasubramanian, Stony Brook University |
 | Kuljeet Kaur École de technologie supérieure, Montreal, Canada Kuljeet Kaur stands out as an exceptional researcher in the realm of cyber-physical systems and datacenter networking. Her scholarly papers have garnered numerous best paper accolades from a variety of conferences, and her research has received extensive citations, reflecting its profound influence on the field. Even in the initial phases of her career, she has exhibited notable technical expertise and assumed pivotal roles in community leadership such as N2Women and IEEE WICE. Baek-Young Choi, Professor of Computer Science, University of Missouri – Kansas City, IEEE WICE Chair (2022-23) |
 | Ming Li The University of Texas at Arlington, USA Ming is an outstanding researcher in mobile computing and networking. Her research explores cutting-edge topics such as transformational applications in mobile systems, resource optimization and QoE assessment for the next-generation networks, and user-centered security and privacy. She has pioneered research that leverages ubiquitous sensing to enhance the quality of emerging network services. Her research has been recognized and supported by the NSF, DoT, and NIH. She is the recipient of the prestigious NSF CAREER Award. Pan Li, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, Case Western Reserve University |
 | Martina Lindorfer TU Wien Martina Lindorfer has distinguished herself as a prominent figure in the fields of systems security and privacy, particularly focusing on mobile and networking aspects. Since obtaining her PhD in 2017 under the auspices of Austria's President, Martina has had a remarkable ascent in her career. Her contributions are not only prolific but also impactful, as her extensive publication record in top-tier venues and over 3000 citations show. What sets Martina apart is not just her academic excellence but also her leadership and advocacy. She is not only regularly serving on top program committees but has also been chairing them. She is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, and she follows through on her commitment to encouraging underrepresented groups to pursue careers in security and privacy through outreach and mentorship. Kevin Borgolte, Faculty of Computer Science, Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) in Bochum, Germany |
 | Wanchun Liu The University of Sydney, Australia Wanchun is establishing herself as a leader in the interdisciplinary field of wireless networked control systems, adeptly bridging the domains of advanced wireless communications and control systems. Her pioneering efforts have laid the foundation for stability conditions in wireless networked control systems. Additionally, she has developed a fundamental optimization framework for the co-design of communications and control in large-scale systems. Beyond theoretical contributions, she has also applied wireless control theory to networked robotics, successfully addressing real-world challenges. Her work is poised to significantly impact the next generation of industrial revolution. Xiangyun Zhou, Associate Professor, The Australian National University |
 | Shu Sun Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China Shu Sun has made seminal fundamental contributions in millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications. Shu’s research work had a significant impact on the wireless world’s move to mmWave frequencies and adaptive beamforming, and her efforts helped prove to the world that mmWave would work. She participated in and motivated the global standard body to adopt mmWave and her own research as part of the 3GPP standard. She has published many highly-influential papers with 20,000+ Google Scholar citations, and has received several prestigious international academic awards. In addition, she is very gentle, hardworking, a team player, and a respected mentor of students. Meixia Tao, Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China |
 | Maria Torres Vega KU Leuven, Belgium Maria Torres Vega is an excellent and promising young researcher that has significantly contributed to improving the quality of experience of immersive multimedia streaming applications. She has performed cutting edge research on the intersection between wireless networks, transport-layer protocols, and user-driven quality of experience assessment. Her research has won her several awards at conferences (e.g., MoMM 2015, MMSys 2019, QoMEX 2020), as well as the IEEE CNOM Young Professional Award 2022. Jeroen Famaey Associate professor, University of Antwerp Principal investigator, imec |
 | Yongxu Zhu University of Warwick, United Kingdom Yongxu has made outstanding contributions to 6G edge networks, particularly on intelligent resource optimization, scheduling for massive terminal access, and security, with low-energy consumption. Her research outcomes tackle several open challenges in efficient resource provisioning, terminal collaboration, and secure operations under energy constraints. In her young career, she has already published over 40 high-quality papers in competitive journals. Due to her impressive research accomplishments, she was invited to serve as an editor of prestigious journals like IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications and a technical program committee member of premier conferences, providing exemplary services to her communities. She is a model for young researchers to follow and is indeed a rising star this award is looking for. Yuguang “Michael” Fang, City University of Hong Kong |
