Biosketch

Dr. Rabab Kreidieh Ward is a pioneering electrical engineer and a world leader in the field of signal and image processing. She is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where she was the first woman appointed as a professor of engineering in British Columbia. Over a career spanning more than four decades, Dr. Ward made foundational contributions to signal detection, image encoding, restoration, and their wide-ranging applications in cable television, medical imaging, infant cry analysis, and brain-computer interfaces. Her innovations led to more than 250 peer-reviewed journal publications, 350 conference papers, and ten patents – some of which have been licensed for use in industry in the United States and Canada

Dr. Ward earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Cairo University and her Master’s and PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

A trailblazer for women in engineering, Dr. Ward directed the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems at UBC from 1996 to 2007 and supervised nearly 49 Ph.D. and 52 Master students.  Seventeen of her Ph.D. students have been appointed as professors (9 in Canada). She was VP Education of IEEE (2023-2024); IEEE is the largest professional society in the world with more than 500,000 members. She was also President of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (2016–2017), and  IEEE Director (2020–2021). Dr. Ward is internationally recognized for her scientific excellence and academic leadership. She is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the IEEE, and the Engineering Institute of Canada. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the IEEE Fourier Award for Signal Processing (2023), the IEEE Signal Processing Society highest honor Award ( 2013), and the R.A. McLachlan Award (2008) for excellence in engineering education and innovation.