Donald F. Towsley is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 computer scientist

Computer scientist

A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....

, currently
Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

University of Massachusetts Amherst

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...

, where he co-directs the Networking Research Laboratory. He received his B.A. degree in physics and his Ph.D. degree in computer science, both from the University of Texas. Professor Towsley has been a Visiting Scientist at AT&T Labs

AT&T Labs

AT&T Labs, Inc. is the research & development division of AT&T, where scientists and engineers work to understand and advance innovative technologies relevant to networking, communications, and information. Over 1800 employees work in six locations: Florham Park, NJ; Middletown, NJ; Austin, TX;...

 - Research, IBM Research

IBM Research

IBM Research, a division of IBM, is a research and advanced development organization and currently consists of eight locations throughout the world and hundreds of projects....

, INRIA, Microsoft Research

Microsoft Research

Microsoft Research is the research division of Microsoft created in 1991 for developing various computer science ideas and integrating them into Microsoft products. It currently employs Turing Award winners C.A.R. Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Charles P...

 Cambridge, and the University of Paris 6

University of Paris VI: Pierre et Marie Curie

The Paris VI University , or the Pierre and Marie Curie University , is a university located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France....

.

His research interests include network measurement, modeling, and analysis. Dr. Towsley currently serves as Editor-in-Chief

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

 of the IEEE/ACM

Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...

 Transactions on Networking and on the editorial boards of Journal of the ACM

Journal of the ACM

The Journal of the ACM is the flagship scientific journal of the Association for Computing Machinery . It is peer-reviewed and covers computer science in general, especially theoretical aspects. Its current editor-in-chief is Victor Vianu, from University of California, San Diego.The journal has...

 and IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications. He is currently the Chair of the IFIP Working Group 7.3 on computer performance

Computer performance

Computer performance is characterized by the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system compared to the time and resources used.Depending on the context, good computer performance may involve one or more of the following:...

 measurement, modeling, and analysis. He has also served on numerous editorial boards including those of IEEE Transactions on Communications and Performance Evaluation. He has been active in the program committees for numerous conferences including IEEE Infocom, ACM SIGCOMM

SIGCOMM

SIGCOMM is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Data Communications, which specializes in the field of communication and computer networks. It is also the name of an annual 'flagship' conference, organized by SIGCOMM, which is considered to be the leading conference...

, ACM SIGMETRICS, and IFIP Performance conferences for many years, and has served as Technical Program Co-Chair for ACM SIGMETRICS and Performance conferences. He has received the 2007 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award

IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award

The IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award is a Technical Field Award of the IEEE established in 1986. This award has been presented annually since 1988 for outstanding contributions to the integration of computers and communications....

, the 2007 ACM SIGMETRICS Achievement Award, the 1999 IEEE Communications Society

IEEE Communications Society

The IEEE Communications Society is a professional society of the IEEE. It is also known by the abbreviation ComSoc. The Society focuses on two principal areas: the science of, and education about, communications engineering with the goal of advancing the state of the field; and professional...

 William Bennett Award, and several conference /workshop best paper awards. He is also the recipient of the University of Massachusetts Chancellor's Medal and the Outstanding Research Award from the College of Natural Science and Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts. He is one of the founders of the Computer Performance Foundation. He has twice been the recipient of IBM Faculty Fellowship Awards and is a Fellow of the IEEE and the ACM.
Towsley is also notable for having a high h-index

H-index

The h-index is an index that attempts to measure both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar. The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications...

: 65.