Mohsen Kavehrad has been appointed the first holder of the W. L. Weiss Chair in Information and Communications Technology in the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Kavehrad joined the Penn State faculty in January 1997, as professor of electrical engineering and director of the Center for Information and Communications Technology Research. He is a former professor of electrical engineering at the University of Ottawa.

Kavehrad's research interests are wireless communications, optical fiber communications, and networking; and he holds several patents in these areas. He is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Wireless Information Networks, and has published extensively in the field. In 1992, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to digital wireless communications, optical systems, and networking. For his work in communications technology, he has been cited in several international "Who's Who" publications.

Kavehrad received his Ph.D. in 1977 in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University, NY. He previously worked for Fairchild Industries (Space Communications Group), and GTE Satellite Corporation and GTE Laboratories in Massachusetts. Before teaching at the University of Ottawa, Kavehrad worked with Bell Telephone Laboratories of New Jersey in research, development, and systems engineering. He has also been a visiting research professor at NTT Laboratories in Japan, and served as visiting researcher at Ottawa's Bell Northern research center in 1996.

This chair was endowed by the Ameritech Foundation to honor William L. Weiss (IE '51), chairman emeritus of Ameritech. Weiss was named chairman and CEO of Ameritech in 1984, following a career with Bell companies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois.

Weiss was named an Outstanding Engineering Alumnus in 1985, and a Distinguished Alumnus in 1986. He has served as a Penn State Trustee, vice chairman of the National Development Council, and as a member of the executive committee for The Campaign for Penn State.

Dr. Kavehrad may be reached at (814) 865-7179, or at kavehrad@engr.psu.edu.