Lin Zhong named the Joseph C. Tsai Professor of Computer Science

Lin Zhong, an experimental computer scientist who has done pioneering work in computer systems, was recently appointed the inaugural the Joseph C. Tsai Professor of Computer Science, effective immediately.

Zhong joined the faculty of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS), in the Department of Computer Science, in 2020, arriving from Rice University where he was a professor.

At Yale, he quickly established collaborations within the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments and with Applied Physics. He is leading the Computer Science department in two university priority areas — AI and quantum computing. He has formed a large research group of students and post-docs working in these areas. In AI he leads a group in the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded AI Institute for Edge Computing to empower devices with limited resources to securely access AI functions of large models. He also leads the NSF-funded PARAGON project to develop a control system for programming and debugging quantum computers with hundreds of qubits. His work in quantum computing has already been recognized with a best paper award from IEEE Quantum Computing & Engineering for his team’s work in developing the world’s fastest and largest quantum error code decoder, a critical component for fault-tolerant quantum computing. His work in AI and quantum computing is in addition to continuing his work in mobile networks and operating systems.

Collaborating with his former students, Zhong has made extensive contributions to the field of mobile computing, delivering high performance, energy efficient systems. He has been recognized for his work in defining the tradeoffs in mobile system design, designing novel mobile platforms, and performing large latitudinal studies of mobile users for which he was recognized by the ACM SigMobile RockStar Award. His work has provided unique insights into the relationship between human interaction with devices and design for energy efficiency — such as the impact of color choices of mobile user interfaces, anticipating the dark mode available on modern mobile devices. He contributed major innovations to massive MIMO, a key capacity-enhancing technology used by modern mobile networks, which was recognized by an ACM SigMobile Test of Time award and forms the technical basis for Skylark Wireless, a company co-founded by his former Ph.D. student. He was recognized as an IEEE Fellow in 2019 for development of energy-efficient driver circuits for organic light-emitting diodes, and as an ACM Fellow in 2021 for his overall work in mobile and network systems.

Within the computer science department, Zhong has worked to expand and strengthen the graduate program. He guided the expansion of graduate admissions to match the expansion of the computer science faculty and helped establish departmental awards and mentoring mechanisms for graduate students. He currently serves as the department Director of Graduate Studies. He has mentored many undergraduate projects and hosts a diverse group of student researchers each summer.

A graduate of Tsinghua University with a B.S. and M.S. in electronic engineering, Zhong earned his Ph.D. in computer engineering from Princeton University.