Azer Bestavros

Azer Bestavros is BU’s inaugural Associate Provost for Computing & Data Sciences, and the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in the College of Arts & Sciences. He is also Affiliated Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering. In his role as Associate Provost (CDS), Dr. Bestavros works closely with senior academic leaders and faculty in establishing the policies, operating principles, and strategic issues that will guide the initial efforts of the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences.  He is also Professor and former Chair (2000-2007) of the BU Computer Science Department, which he joined in 1991 after completing his PhD at Harvard. His research contributions in the broad areas of networking and distributed systems include pioneering the Web push content distribution model adopted years later by industry, seminal work on Internet traffic characterization, game-theoretic approaches to cloud resource management, and safety certification of networked systems and software. This work yielded 16 PhD theses, 6 issued patents, 3 startups, and hundreds of refereed papers that are cited over 13,000 times. Dr. Bestavros was the Founding Director of the BU Hariri Institute for Computing, which was set up in 2010 to “create and sustain a community of scholars who believe in the transformative potential of computational perspectives in research and education.” At the Institute, he spearheaded a number of cloud computing, big-data, and cybersecurity initiatives, most notably the Open Cloud Exchange project which aims to set up a new model for public clouds and for cloud marketplaces. He serves as board member of the Cloud Computing Caucus, a non-profit, non-partisan coalition of industry and key government stakeholders, focused on raising awareness and educating lawmakers and the public on issues associated with cloud computing.