Computer Science Professor Elected AAAS Fellow

Dr. Latifur Khan, professor of computer science at The University of Texas at Dallas, has been elected to the 2024 class of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellows.

Khan is one of 471 scientists, engineers and innovators to be recognized across 24 disciplinary sections. The new fellows will be honored at a June 7 event in Washington, D.C.

The AAAS elected Khan in the section on information, computing and communication for “distinguished contributions to the field of machine learning with applications to cybersecurity, social sciences and data management.”

Khan, who joined UT Dallas in 2000, is an international leader in big-stream data analytics, which involves large, continuous streams of data, and an expert in big-data management and data mining, as well as machine learning in cybersecurity.

In 2024, he received a nearly $1 million grant over two years from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish a UT Dallas Center for Secure and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence to address challenges that AI poses to cybersecurity.

“Dr. Latifur Khan is a world-class researcher who has pioneered numerous fundamental advanced data mining algorithms for a range of applications such as cybersecurity and geospatial data analytics,” said Dr. Ovidiu Daescu, professor and department head of computer science and a Jonsson School Chair in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. “I am thrilled that Dr. Khan, who began his academic career at UT Dallas, has received one of the highest honors for a scientist.”

Khan’s research crosses a range of fields from cybersecurity to political science. He developed a mechanism to determine when to update a machine learning model designed to monitor large streams of continuous data for cybersecurity risks. The solution addressed the need to adapt the model as attackers change their approach. In a collaboration with researchers in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, Khan also developed an AI-driven, open-source tool, ConfliBERT, a repository of information about political conflict and violence.

“I am very honored to be named a AAAS fellow, which represents a multidisciplinary group of scientists,” Khan said. “I’m very grateful to UTD for the support I’ve received.”

Khan also is a fellow of the IEEE, a fellow of the British Computer Society and a fellow of The Institution of Engineering and Technology. He is a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery and has received an IBM Faculty Award, an IEEE Technical Achievement Award, a joint award from the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society and from the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society, and several IEEE best paper awards.

Khan’s work has been supported by agencies including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy, National Security Agency and Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He earned a master’s degree and a PhD from the University of Southern California. Before coming to the U.S. in 1995 for his graduate education, Khan obtained his bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.