Editorial

Introduction to the special section on recent advances on blockchain infrastructures and applications

Khaled Salah is a full professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Khalifa University, UAE. He received the B.S. degree in Computer Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Iowa State University, USA, in 1990, the M.S. degree in Computer Systems Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, USA, in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the same institution in 2000. He joined Khalifa University in August 2010, and is teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in the areas of cloud computing, computer and network security, computer networks, operating systems, and performance modeling and analysis. Prior to joining Khalifa University, Khaled worked for ten years at the department of Information and Computer Science, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), KSA. Khaled has over 170 publications and 2 patents, has been giving a number of international keynote speeches, invited talks, tutorials, and research seminars on the subjects of Blockchain, IoT, Fog and Cloud Computing, and Cybersecurity. Khaled was the recipient of Khalifa University Outstanding Research Award 2014/2015, KFUPM University Excellence in Research Award of 2008/09, and KFUPM Best Research Project Award of 2009/10, and also the recipient of the departmental awards for Distinguished Research and Teaching in prior years. Khaled is a senior member of IEEE, and serves on the Editorial Boards of many WOS-listed journals including IET Communications, IET Networks, Elsevier's JNCA, Wiley's SCN, Wiley's IJNM, J.UCS, and AJSE. Khaled will serve as the Track/Symposium Chair of IEEE Globecom 2018 on Cloud Computing.

Ala Al-Fuqaha (“AL”) (S’00-M’04-SM’09) received his M.S. from the University of Missouri-Columbia and Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  Currently, he is a Professor and director of NEST Research Lab at the Computer Science Department of Western Michigan University.  Dr. Al-Fuqaha advised multiple Ph.D. and Master's students at Western Michigan University. In 2006, he was the recipient of the outstanding new educator award at the college of Engineering and Applied Sciences of Western Michigan University. So far, his research efforts have culminated in more than seventy five refereed journal, conference and book publications in a wide variety of prestigious international conferences and journals including the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (IEEE JSAC), IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (IEEE TVT), IEEE Transactions on Communications (TCOM), IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), IEEE ACCESS, IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (COMST), and IEEE Communications Magazine as well as IEEE INCOFOM, IEEE ICC and IEEE GLOBECOM. He is currently serving on the editorial board for IEEE Communications Letters, Springer AJSE, Industrial Networks and Intelligent Systems Journal, International Journal of Computing and Digital Systems, and International Journal of Multimedia. He is an IEEE senior member and an ABET Program Evaluator (PEV). He served on editorial boards and technical program committees of multiple international journals and conferences.

Mamoun Alazab is an Associate Professor in the College of Engineering, IT and Environment, IT Discipline. He is a cyber security researcher and practitioner with industry and academic experience. His research is multidisciplinary that focuses on cyber security and digital forensics of computer systems including current and emerging issues in the cyber environment like cyber-physical systems and internet of things, by taking into consideration the unique challenges present in these environments, with a focus on cybercrime detection and prevention. Assoc. Prof. Alazab received his PhD degree in Computer Science and has more than 100 research papers. He presented at many invited keynotes talks and panels, at conferences and venues nationally and internationally (22 events in 2018 alone). He is a Senior Member of the IEEE. He is an editor on multiple editorial boards including Associate Editor of IEEE Access (2017 Impact Factor 3.557), Editor of the Security and Communication Networks Journal (2017 Impact Factor: 0.904) and Book Review Section Editor: Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law (JDFSL).

Tariq Umer (M’16, SM’16) received his Ph.D. in Communication systems in 2012 from School of Computing & Communications, Lancaster University, U.K and Master in Computer Science in 1997 from B.Z.U, Multan, Pakistan. He served for IT education sector in Pakistan for more than 13 years. Since January 2007, he is working as Assistant Professor in CS department of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Wah Cantt. His research interests include cognitive radio ad hoc networks, Internet of Things, Wireless Sensor Networks, Telecommunication Network Design, Vehicular Adhoc Networks and Internet of Vehicles (IoV). He is currently serving as an Editorial board member of Elsevier Future Generation Computer System (FGCS) and Associate Editor of the IEEE Access journal. He served in the TPC for the international conference FIT 16, IEEE PGnet 2011, 2012, IEEE FMEC 2016, WPMC 2017, CSCN 2017 and ANTS 2017 conferences. He is currently serving as a reviewer for IEEE Communications Letters, IEEE ACCESS, Computers and Electrical Engineering (Elsevier), Journal of Network and Computer Applications (Elsevier), Wireless Networks (Springer) journal, and the Journal of Communications and Networks.