Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Tian Lan has been elevated to Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), joining an elite group nominated by their peers for advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, effective January 1. Lan was selected as one of just 350 individuals in the Class of 2026 for his “contributions to the theory of network optimization.”
An IEEE Fellow is a prestigious, highest-grade membership in IEEE awarded to select members for extraordinary accomplishments and distinction in IEEE fields like engineering, science, and technology, with fewer than 0.1% of voting members achieving this honor annually.
Lan joined IEEE during his doctoral studies at Princeton University, where he laid the foundation for his impactful career. Over the years, he has remained active in the community, not only attending IEEE conferences but also helping to coordinate them, such as serving as area chair of the technical program committee for the 2025 International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM).
Lan’s research expertise spans several areas of optimization and machine learning, with applications to communications and networking. From mathematically quantifying the notion of fairness in resource management to enabling decentralized solutions with multi-agent learning, he aims to understand and address fundamental challenges in networked systems.
This work is supported by various government agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Army Research Office, and the United States Military Academy.
In one active DARPA-funded project, Lan and his students are collaborating with peers at Pennsylvania State University to develop tactical mixed reality systems that safeguard human users from cognitive attacks in the cyber realm. In research funded by ONR, he leads a team in tackling challenges in human-AI collaboration, aiming to enhance AI agents’ understanding of human behaviors in shared environments.
Lan’s accomplishments have earned multiple industry research awards from Meta, AT&T, and Cisco, along with several Best Paper/Demo awards at major conferences, including IEEE INFOCOM, ACM MobiHoc, IEEE VR, and IEEE GLOBECOM. He also received an IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper award.
On the national level, Lan’s significant influence on the networking field was recognized when he was selected to serve on the Federal Communications Commission’s Technological Advisory Council from April 2024 to September 2025. Lan’s selection as an IEEE Fellow further solidifies his leadership in the field and underscores his commitment to providing networked users with secure, simple, fair, and sustainable services.
“I’m deeply grateful to my Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Mung Chiang, M.S. advisor, Dr. Wei Yu, and nominator, Dr. Ness Shroff, who have played a significant role in my personal and professional growth and have always been my inspiration,” said Lan. “Also, I’m appreciative of my excellent collaborators, mentors, and colleagues, funding agencies, and the brilliant and motivated students with whom I have been lucky to work.”