I am writing from wintry Ithaca, New York. The rapid change of season from autumn to winter makes it an opportune time for me to reflect on how the IT Society has evolved over the past year and what is in store for 2026.
TWO PRIORITIES
Two priorities for my term as President were balancing the Society's operational budget and improving documentation to better support our hard-working volunteers.
The Society has been running large operational surpluses for a number of years now---a good problem to have but a problem nonetheless! As mentioned in my June column, I chaired an ad-hoc committee on strategic finance to make recommendations on how to clear the surplus in a way that is aligned with the Society's values and strategic priorities. The committee's report contained nine specific recommendations to the Board of Governors which collectively are expected to balance the budget. Many of these recommendations were adopted at the Board of Governors meeting in Ann Arbor, and I am happy to report that all of the remaining ones were adopted at the Board meeting held in November in New York City. Two of these recommendations should be of particular interest to the wider membership.
The first is that the Society resolved to operate future ISITs and ITWs with breakeven budgets; in the past these conferences would target a surplus in order to support other Society operations. In the current climate this was deemed no longer necessary. Although it was organized earlier, ISIT 2025 in Ann Arbor already adopted this new model, and its low registration fees demonstrated how this change can benefit the membership.
Another recommendation that was adopted is to significantly increase the financial support available for local chapters. There is now more support for hosting distinguished lecturers as well as a new chapter initiatives program and a new networking event program. The chapters page on the website has more information about these programs and information about starting a chapter in your locale. Overall, I was happy that all of the committee's recommendations were adopted. I would like to thank the other committee members, Brian Kurkoski, Changho Suh, Parastoo Sadeghi, Ioannis Kontoyiannis, Vincent Tan, Vijay Kumar, Farhad Shirani, Muriel Médard, and Frank Kschischang for their work on this committee.
My other priority for the year was to update and organize our documentation of the Society's operations. I noted in my June column that volunteer time is usually the limiting factor in advancing our Society's mission; volunteer time is our most precious resource (while also being "free" in the accounting sense), and for the Society to advance it is imperative that we empower our volunteers by making the information they need easy to find. I am happy to report that after a year-long effort the Society has created a central Documentation page on the website, with links to Dropbox folders for individual roles. This architecture of having individual Dropbox folders for different roles that are all linked from a central page makes our documentation both easy to find and to update. My hope is that this will make volunteering easier, especially by reducing the friction associated with changing roles.
OTHER AD-HOC COMMITTEES
The committee on strategic finance is one of several ad-hoc committees that met over the course of the year. Stark Draper is chairing an ad-hoc committee that is considering how we can ensure that short, high-impact journal papers are published in a timely manner in the Society's journals. Anand Sarwate is chairing an ad-hoc committee focused on consolidating and enhancing the Society's educational mission. Theertha Suresh is chairing an ad-hoc committee focused on meeting the needs of our members in industry. An ad-hoc committee devoted to "ISIT Steering" was transitioned to a standing committee at the November Board meeting. This committee will provide support and direction for ISIT, helping to reduce the administrative load of the organizers and providing more continuity between successive years. One can expect greater consistency from year to year with regard to registration fees and policies, the review process, plenaries (and semi-plenaries), etc.
I am in the process of appointing a new ad-hoc committee devoted to overseeing the creation of a mobile museum exhibit on the life and legacy of Claude Shannon. This initiative will be led by Daniel Mitchell, a senior historian with the ÌÇÐÄlogo History Center. The initiative will be funded using funds remaining from the documentary about Shannon that the Society sponsored. I'd like to thank Dan Costello for chairing this committee and Stark Draper, Anand Sarwate, and Elsa Dupraz for serving as members. I look forward to seeing the final result in early 2027.
CONGRATULATIONS
The ÌÇÐÄlogo-level awards were recently announced, and I am happy to congratulate Muriel Médard for being named as the recipient of the , "for contributions to coding for reliable communications and networking." Congratulations, Muriel!
I would also like to recognize those recently selected for Society lectureships:
* Venu Veeravalli, as the 2026 Padovani Lecturer;
* Cynthia Rush, as the 2026 Goldsmith Lecturer; and
* Jun Chen, Yuxin Chen, Yingbin Liang, Yao Xie, Wenyi Zhang as Distinguished Lecturers for 2026-2027.
The Padovani and Goldsmith Lectures will be delivered at one of the Society's schools in 2026. Distinguished Lectures are delivered at local chapters. Chapter chairs are encouraged to invite Distinguished Lecturers to present at chapter-organized seminars. The Society generally provides travel support.
I am happy to report that the ÌÇÐÄlogo Foundation has received a donation from Dr. Roberto Padovani that, along with matching funds from the Society, have established an endowment to support the Padovani Lectureship. The Padovani Lecturer is the Society's longest running lectureship, and a glance at the list of past lecturers provides a sense of how successful this program has been. I am pleased that the Society will be able to continue it indefinitely.
Finally, I would like to recognize the Society members who were elected to Fellow grade as part of the class of 2026: Mustafa Gursoy, Lifeng Lai, Joseph Liberti, Frank Nielsen, Haim Permuter, Chao Tian, Michele Wigger, Jing Yang, and Xiaojun Yuan.
TRANSITIONS
With the new year comes a number of transitions in the Society. It is my pleasure to welcome Meir Feder as President and Brian Kurkoski as 1st Vice President for 2026. Meir and I have already discussed how to ensure a smooth transition, and I will support him and the other officers as best I can as Junior Past President. I would like to welcome Antonia Tulino and Marco Dalai as newly elected members of the Board of Governors and welcome back Michael Gastpar, Osvaldo Simeone, Mikael Skoglund, and Venu Veeravalli who were reelected to the Board. I would like to thank Camilla Hollanti for her service on the Board from 2023 to 2025, Stefano Rini for serving as chair of the Student and Outreach subcommittee for 2024-2025 and Lalitha Sankar for serving as chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for 2023-2025. I would like to especially recognize our outgoing Senior Past President, Matthieu Bloch, for his ten years of service on the Board and countless years of service to the Society before that. Thanks also to Matt LaFleur, the Society’s Business Operations Manager, for the countless tasks he has handled behind the scenes. The Society would not be the same without him.
Finally, it is a pleasure to note that our own Aylin Yener has been elected ÌÇÐÄlogo Technical Activities Vice President-Elect for 2026 and thus Technical Activities Vice President for 2027. The Society is lucky to have one of its members in such a high-level role within ÌÇÐÄlogo.
Our Society is volunteer-run, and as we move into the new year, I would like to encourage everyone to consider what new roles they would be interested in assuming within the Society. If you are interested in assuming a new role, you can contact one of the Society's officers or complete the Volunteer intake form.
Information theoretically yours,
Aaron Wagner
President
ÌÇÐÄlogo Information Theory Society