We are saddened by the passing of Nicolas D. Georganas, distinguished professor at the School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE) and founding dean of the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Engineering.
Nicolas was one of today's leading researchers in information technology, particularly multimedia systems. His work on performance design and analysis of computer-communication networks, dynamic/hybrid channel assignment in mobile cellular networks and multimedia communications has had a major impact on the field. Recently he investigated collaborative 3D hapto-audio-visual environments, with applications in medical training, in serious gaming and in security. He was also working on next generation multimodal user interfaces including gestures for friendlier real-time interactions among users and their surroundings.
Indeed, throughout his outstanding career, Nicolas won tremendous acclaim: He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, received the Order of Ontario, the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal and the Killam Prize for Engineering, and was appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, among many other honors. In 2008, he became Secretary of the Academy of Science at the Royal Society of Canada.
Within the SIG Multimedia (SIGMM) community, Nicolas has been very well known through his high impact research and excellent service. He participated very actively in shaping SIGMM leading conferences and journals over the last 20 years. In 2004, he started the premier journal for the SIGMM community, the ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communication and Applications (TOMCCAP) Journal, and he became its first Editor-in-Chief.
Under his leadership, this journal became highly recognized publication where SIGMM community publishes and reads about high quality results in multimedia areas. Over the last three years, he has thoughtfully and actively served as the chair and member of the ACM SIGMM awards committee for the prestigious Technical Achievements Award in Multimedia Research.
We will thoroughly miss him. We have lost not only an exceptional scientist and colleague, but also a close friend who cared and helped selflessly so many of us.
Klara Nahrstedt, Rainer Lienhart, Mohan Kankanhalli
ACM SIGMM Leadership July 28, 2010
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