Sundararaja Sitharama Iyengar

Biography

Prof. S.S. Iyengar is currently the Distinguished University Professor, Founding Director of the Discovery Lab, and Director of the US Army-funded Center of Excellence in Digital Forensics at Florida International University, Miami. He is also the Distinguished Chaired Professor at National Forensics Sciences University, Gandhinagar, India. He was honored as the ‘Founding Father of AI Science in Digital Forensics’ by the Soft Computing Research Society in February 2025. This prestigious recognition is a testament to his lifelong contributions to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital forensics. He was recently awarded the 2025 Distinguished Career Award in Computer Science and Fellow of the Washington Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the 2023 Karnataka Rajyotava Award (Karnataka State’s 2nd Highest Civilian Award) on November 1st, 2023. He has been involved with research and education in high-performance intelligent systems, Data Science and Machine Learning Algorithms, Sensor Fusion, Data Mining, and Intelligent Systems. Since receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1974 from Missi. State Univ., USA, he has directed over 65 Ph.D. students, many number of postdocs, and many research undergraduate students who are now faculty at Major Universities worldwide or Scientists or Engineers at National Labs/Industries around the world. He has published more than 600 research papers, has authored/co-authored and edited 32 books, and hold various patents. Over the lifetime, his work, Brooks-Iyengar Algorithm has over 5223 publications(s) within this topic and has received 138,976 citation(s). The topic is also known as the Brooks-Iyengar hybrid algorithm. 

His h-index is 68 and is identified among the top 2% cited scholars and world scientists (from Stanford University and EBMs of JSAN journal. The book titled “Fundamentals of Brooks-Iyengar Distributed Sensing Algorithm” authored by Prof. Pawel (Poland) and others and published by Springer in 2020 celebrates S.S. Iyengar’s accomplishments that led to his 2019 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Cybermatics Congress “Test of Time Award” for his work on creating Brooks-Iyengar Algorithm and its impact in advancing modern computing. His work has been featured on the cover of many scientific journals like IEEE Transactions and the National Science Foundation’s Breakthrough Technologies report to the US Congress by his research group in both 2014 and again in 2016.

He has served on many scientific committees and panels worldwide and has served as the editor/guest editor of various IEEE and ACM journals. His books are published by MIT Press, John Wiley and Sons, CRC Press, Prentice Hall, Springer Verlag, IEEE Computer Society Press, etc. One of his books titled “Introduction to Parallel Algorithms” has been translated into Chinese. During the last thirty years Iyengar has brought in over 65 million dollars for research and education. More recently in Spring 2021, Iyengar in collaboration with HBCUs were awarded a $2.25 M funding for setting up a Digital Forensics Center of Excellence over a period of 5 years (2021-2026). He received four (4) honorary Doctor of Science, one recently from Poznan University of Technology in Poland in May 2023. He has been awarded three (3) Lifetime Achievement Awards (INTERPOL, BHU, IEEE), recently for his contribution to the field of Digital Forensics on November 8, 2022, during the 7th INTERPOL DIGITAL FORENSICS EXPERT GROUP (DFEG) MEETING at the National Forensics Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. He has provided the students and faculty with a vision for active learning and collaboration at Jackson State University, Louisiana State University, Florida International University, and across the world.

Iyengar’s career is a distinguished one, marked by his incredible record of success in groundbreaking research, inspirational teaching, and excellence in community service. It is his consistent drive to fight for and promote the minority and underrepresented groups that is his passion.

Iyengar is a Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Member of the European Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Fellow of the Society for Design and Process Science (SDPS), a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and a Fellow of the Washington Academy of Sciences (WAS). He has received various national and international awards including the crowning Test of Time Research (for his seminal work which has impacted billions of computer and internet users worldwide) and Scholarly Contribution Award from 2019 IEEE Congress on Cybermatics, the distinguished Fulbright Scientist, the Times Network NRI (Non-Resident Indian) of the Year Award for 2017, IEEE Meritorious Service award, most distinguished CVR Award at the Society for Design and Process Science (SDPS 2017), Innovation-2-Industry Award, Distinguished Rain Makers for Leadership and Research Award, World’s Best Technology Showcase award, Technology Innovation Award Louisiana Tech University Research Foundation Inventor Award, Distinguished Research Master Award, IBM Distinguished Faculty Award, and the NRI Mahatma Gandhi Pradvasi Medal at the House of Lords in London in 2013 among others. He was awarded Satish Dhawan Chaired Professorship at IISc, then Roy Paul Daniel Professorship at LSU. He has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Science. In 1998, he was awarded the IEEE Computer Society’s McCluskey Technical Achievement Award and is an IEEE Golden Core Member. Professor Iyengar is an IEEE Distinguished Visitor, SIAM Distinguished Lecturer, and ACM National Lecturer. In 2006, his paper entitled, A Fast-Parallel Thinning Algorithm for the Binary Image Skeletonization, was the most frequently read article in the month of January in the International Journal of High-Performance Computing Applications. His innovative work called the Brooks-Iyengar algorithm along with Professor Richard Brooks from Clemson University is applied in industries to solve real-world applications. Iyengar’s work had a big impact; in 1988, when he and his colleagues discovered “NC algorithms for Recognizing Chordal Graphs and K-trees” [IEEE Trans. on Computers 1988]. This breakthrough result led to the extension of designing fast parallel algorithms by researchers like J. Naor (Stanford), M. Naor (Berkeley), and A. A. Schaffer (AT&T Bell Labs).

His research has been funded by National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Multi-University Research Initiative (MURI Program), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Energy / Oak Ridge National Laboratory (DOE/ORNL), Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US Army Research Office (URO), and various state agencies and companies. He has served on US National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health Panels to review proposals in various aspects of Computational Science and has been involved as an external evaluator (ABET-accreditation) for several Computer Science and Engineering Departments across the country and the world. Iyengar has also served as a research proposal evaluator for the National Academy. Iyengar has been a Visiting Professor or Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory, and has been awarded the Satish Dhawan Visiting Chaired Professorship at the Indian Institute of Science, the Homi Bhaba Visiting Chaired Professor (IGCAR), and a professorship at the University of Paris-Sorbonne.

Awards & Honors

• Florida Academy of Sciences Award (Engineering Division), ASEMFL, November 2025
• 2025 Distinguished Career Award in Computer Science and Fellow of the Washington Academy of Sciences, USA, May 2025
• Pampa Varushadha Kannadiga 2024 Award by Pampa Kannada Koota, Michigan, USA, April 5, 2025
• ‘Founding Father of AI Science in Digital Forensics’ by the Soft Computing Research Society, February 2025
• Founding Father and a Distinguished Scientist in AI and ML contributions to Information Forensics Applications, Poznan University of Technology, Poland, January 2025
• 2024 Kannada Rajyotsava Award Recognition for Professor S.S. Iyengar’s accomplishments by Bharat Electronics Limited (PSU under Ministry of Defence, Government of India) - November 25, 2024
• International Peace Award - Mother Teresa Memorial National Award for Social Justice 2024. in the Science and Technology NRI category.
• Karnataka Rajyotsava Award 2023, the second-highest civilian honor in the Indian state of Karnataka. In recognition of his significant contribution to the society of Karnataka through the impactful implementation of the Brooks-Iyengar Algorithm in Agriculture. This crowning achievement acknowledges and celebrates his outstanding triumph in advancing agricultural practices in India, specifically in Karnataka.
• Honorary doctorate of science from Siddhartha Institute of Technology (Doctor of Honoris Causa, November 2023.
• Honorary doctorate of science from Poznan University of Technology in Poland, May 2023 
• Lifetime Achievement Award for contribution to the field of Digital Forensics on November 8, 2022, during the 7th INTERPOL DIGITAL FORENSICS EXPERT GROUP (DFEG) MEETING at National Forensics Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
• Karnataka Rajya Seva Ratna Award, 2022 awarded by the Karnataka Pressclub Council for his contribution to the people of India in Agriculture, Computational Medicine, and other fields.
• U.S. Army-funded “AI Learned: Cyber Forensics for Defense (CYFORD)” Award, 2021
• Outstanding Research Award for Test of Time Research and Scholarly Contribution for Iyengar from IEEE Congress on Cybermatics, awarded by Professor Steven Yao, former President of Computer Society, June 2019. 
• 2019 IEEE Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI) Research Leadership Award for his contribution in the area of distributed sensor systems, 2019. 
• Fulbright Distinguished Award, visited Poznan Institute of Technology and other universities in Poland for his work on “Towards Smart Cities: A Mobile and Social Networking Approach”, April 2019. 
• Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution in Research and Education in the area of Distributed Sensor System at 25th IEEE International Conference on High-Performance Computing, Data and Analytics, December 2018. 
• Florida International University’s University Special Selection Committee selected Iyengar as a Distinguished University Professor (2018). This rank is the highest rank available to Full Professor of the University. 
• TIMES NETWORK and ICICI NRI Award to S.S. Iyengar for Global contribution to technology and Leadership June 2017. This award was selected from 25,000 nominees.
• Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering(AIMBE -2017) for outstanding contributions to the development of distributed computational algorithms
• Received Honorary Doctorate; “Ph.D. (h.c.), Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications” (2017)
• S. S. Iyengar selected by the Engineers Council Honors and Awards Committee, representing engineering societies from across the United States, to receive the “Distinguished Engineering Educator Award.”
• Awarded the Most Distinguished Ramamoorthy Award at the Society for Design and Process Science (SDPS) Conference (2017)
• Nominated for Florida Inventors Hall of Fame (2016-2017)
• IBM Distinguished Faculty Award (2013)
• Awarded the NRI Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Medal at the House of Lords in London in October 2013. [Article]
• Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (NAI) (2012) Citation: For support and commitment to advancing technological development and innovation.
• Iyengar Lifetime Achievement Award Conferred by ISAM(International Society of Agile Manufacturing ) IIT-Banaras Hindu University for his lifelong contribution to the fields of Engineering and Computer Science, December 17, 2012. 
• Iyengar and Nulogix received Florida Innovation Award, 2012
• Iyengar and Nulogix were awarded the third prize in the 2012 Innovation 2 Industry (i2i) Florida competition. The innovative and patented technology invented by the team enables a person to see changes in intraocular pressure by observing their eye using a small handheld device. [“Funding the Dream”, Harbor Style Magazine - June]
• Iyengar received Best Computer Science Faculty of 2012 on December 30th, 2012, Pondicherry at the conference on ASDF Conference on Global Awards. 
• Iyengar received The Association of Scientist and Developers and Faculty Award, 2012
• The Association of Scientist and Developers and Faculty (ASDF) award 2012 committee has selected for distinguished faculty in India. This is in recognition is for mentoring and reviewing over 60 Ph.D. thesis in Indian Universities, which includes IISc, IIT’s, ISI, Calcutta and various universities in India.
• Visvesvaraya College of Engineering- Bangalore, India, January 2-3, 2011
• Recognized by the Societe Mathematique de Tunisie (SMT) for “Notable Services and Outstanding Contributions in the Area of Mathematical Theories in Sensor Networks and Computational Algorithms in Robotics for 2010″.
• Iyengar received an Honorary Doctorate in D.Sc(Eng). from Techno Global University, India, 2010
• ATLAS - 2010, The Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning and Advanced Studies, Georgetown Texas, has elected Dr.Iyengar to the Grade of its Village Fellow.
• Distinguished Service Award Roy Paul Daniel’s Professor Award (2008-2010)
• Distinguished Rain Makers for Leadership and Research Award (2009-2010, LSU)
• Distinguished Research Award from Tunisian Mathematical Society, March 22, 2010, Tunisia
• Best Paper Award at 10th International Conference on Information Technology (IEEE-ICIT 2007) Roorkee, India, Co-authored with Ranjit Abraham and Jay B. Simha, “Medical Data-mining with a New Algorithm for Feature Selection and Naive Bayesian Classifier)
• World’s Best Technology Showcase Award 2007- A project titled “Fast Webpage Allocation on a Server Using Self-Organizing Properties of Neural Networks LA Tech- LSU)” authored by Phoa (LA Tech), S. S. Iyengar (LSU) and Kannan (LSU) has been selected in this highly competitive summit, May 15-18, Arlington, Texas.
• Visiting Chaired Professorship, Dept. of Computer and Communication Engineering, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan, (Aug. 2006 - July 31st, 2007).
• Homi Bhabha Visiting Professorship Award (2003-2006), IGCAR -Kalpakkam, India.
• Fellow of the Society for Design and Process Sign (SDPS) and presented at the Eighth Biennial World Conference on Integrated Design & Process Technology, June 12-16, 2005, Beijing, China for contributions to sensor networks.
• Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Information Systems, ISNG, November 19-21 2004, Las Vegas Co-authored with Lydia Ray, Rajgopal Kannan, Arjan Durresi, and Ramaraju Kalindi, “Secure Weighted Data Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks”
• Best Paper Award at the 18th International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Application (AINA 2004) March 2004 at Tokyo. Co-authored with Parachuri, Durresi, and Kannan “Authenticated Autonomous System Trace back”.
• Distinguished Lecture Series speaker at the University of Florida, Gainesville, February 18th, 2005
• Best Paper Award at International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Application (AINA 2004) March 2004 at Tokyo. Co-authored with Parachuri, Durresi, and Kannan “Authenticated Autonomous System Traceback”.
• Awarded the prestigious Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
• Awarded Roy Paul Daniels Distinguished Professor of Computer Science (2002)
• This Chaired Professorship award was announced by the LSU College Development Council on Friday, November 1st by then current Dean Harold.
• Fellow of Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) (2002)
• Elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences (EAS) in Computer Sciences (July 24, 2002)
• Satish Dhawan Distinguished Professorship Award, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (July 2002)
• IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Membership (2000)
• Citation: As one of the distinguished core of dedicated volunteers and staff whose leadership and service have made the IEEE Computer Society the world’s preeminent association of computing professionals.
• Citation: For fundamental research and contributions in algorithms and data structures for applications in parallel computing, image processing, sensor fusion and robotics, and for services to ACM.
• Fellow of American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2000) Citation: For outstanding contributions to data structures and algorithms for image processing and signal/sensor fusion problems.
• IEEE Computer Society Meritorious Award (2000)
• Distinguished Research Master Award, University Medal, and a Public Lecture made (12, May 1999, LSU)
• Cotton Hub Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence (May 1999, LSU)
• Iyengar received Distinguished Alumnus Award from University 
• Citation: For research contributions in the area of high-performance algorithms and data structures for applications in the field of image processing, Robotics, and Distributed Sensor Integration.
• IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award (1998) Citation: Outstanding contributions in the area of data structures and algorithm in sensor fusion and image processing.
• IEEE Distinguished Visitor (1995-98)
• Citation: For an outstanding contribution to science and technology.
• Elected Member of New York Academy of Science (January 1996 - Present)
• Citation: For outstanding contributions to IEEE professional activities and service.
• Iyengar received Distinguished Research Award from Xiamen University, China for his research in Sensor Networks, Computer Vision, and Image Processing
• IEEE Certificate of Appreciation for presentation entitled “Autonomous Intelligent Machines,” Virginia, (Nov. 21, 1996)
• Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Research (May 1996, LSU)
• Tiger Athletic Foundation Teaching Award (May 1996, LSU)
• Awarded Jawaharlal Nehru Chaired Professorship - University of Hyderabad, India, (Dec. 1995)
• Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (1995)
• Awarded Williams Evans Fellowship, University of Otago, New Zealand (1991)
• ASA Faculty Fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech., (summer 1990) Host: Dr.Chuck Weisbin.
• Phi, Delta Kappa Research Award of Distinction, LSU, Baton Rouge (April 1989)
• Included in Who’s Who of Southwest, (1980)
• Best Teacher of the Year, JSU (1978)

Education

• DSc. (Hon.), Siddhartha Universtiy, Tumkur, India, 2024
• DSc. (Hon.), Poznan University of Technology, Poland, 2023
• Ph.D. (h.c.), Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China 2017
• Ph.D. (Eng.), Mississippi State University, USA 1974
• ME (Mech.Eng.), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India 1970
• BE (Mech.Eng.), UVCE-Bangalore 1968