Rate My Professor Alfred Hero

Alfred Hero is the John H. Holland Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, where his research in Computer Science intersects with signal processing and machine learning. Holding a B.S. summa cum laude in Electrical Engineering from Boston University (1980) and a Ph.D. from Princeton University (1984), he joined the University of Michigan in 1984. His primary appointment is in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, with secondary appointments in Biomedical Engineering and Statistics. He served as founding co-Director of the Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) from 2015 to 2018 and is currently on leave as Program Director at the National Science Foundation's CISE Directorate. Hero held the Digiteo Chaire d’Excellence in France from 2008 to 2013 and various visiting positions at MIT, Boston University, and others.

Hero's research focuses on theory and algorithms for data science and machine learning, including applied probability, statistical modeling, optimization, complex networks, spatio-temporal processes, computational biology, personalized health, and security. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and SIAM Fellow. Notable awards include the IEEE Fourier Award (2020), IEEE Signal Processing Society Society Award (2015), Technical Achievement Award (2014), University of Michigan Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award (2011), and Stephen S. Attwood Excellence in Engineering Award (2017), along with numerous best paper awards such as IEEE SPS Best Paper (1998, 2010) and ICASSP Best Student Paper (2011). He has been President of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (2006-2007), IEEE Division IX Director (2009-2011), and Chair of the National Academies' Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics (2018-2020). Editorial roles include Senior Editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Signal Processing (2016-2021) and Section Editor for SIAM Journal on Mathematics of Data Science until 2022. Key publications feature "Locating the nodes: cooperative localization in wireless sensor networks" (2005), "Relative location estimation in wireless sensor networks" (2003), and "Space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization algorithm" (2002).