Leila De Floriani, a professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences with an appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, has been chosen by her peers to lead the IEEE Computer Society. 

Leila De Floriani will serve as the society’s 2019 President-elect and 2020 President, providing leadership and direction to the organization’s officers and programs that serve more than 60,000 scientists worldwide.

As president, she plans to enhance the organization’s impact and improve its outreach to members in all regions. This includes bolstering membership-based programs such as student and professional chapters, improving communication services for non-English speaking members, and highlighting global technical events.

Enhancing the society’s inclusiveness is another of her major goals. She wants to improve diversity through expanded outreach activities and increase the involvement of women and other underrepresented groups—both as volunteers and in leadership positions in publications, conferences and the organization’s governance.

Leila De Floriani will also work to promote the enhancement of service recognition to society members as a further appreciative step for involvement in the organization’s activities, and the development of activities and resources in support of new generations of computer scientists.

Leila is an IEEE Fellow and an IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Member. Currently she is a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Computer Society since 2017, and the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.