UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus Ed Felten – currently on leave from Princeton University to serve as the first Chief Technologist of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission – has been elected as a member of the 2011 class of Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
The Academy was founded during the American Revolution by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other leaders who contributed prominently to the establishment of the new nation, its government, and its Constitution. Its purpose was to provide a forum for a select group of scholars, members of the learned professions, and government and business leaders to work together on behalf of the democratic interests of the republic.
Felten is a Professor of Computer Science and of Public Policy at Princeton, and Founding Director of Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. He is an expert in computer security and privacy, and public policy issues relating to information technology. He received his Ph.D. from UW CSE in 1993.
Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and namesake of our Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering, was also elected to the American Academy today, as was Affiliate faculty member Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research.