Dr. Wei Zhao will join AUS as Chief Research Officer beginning on January 9, 2018. Dr. Zhao has been Rector (President) and Chair Professor at Macao University since 2008. He previously served as Dean of Science and Professor of Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 2007 to 2008; Division Director at the National Science Foundation from 2005 to 2007; and worked at Texas A&M University from 1990 to 2005 in many positions, including Senior Associate Vice President for Research from 2001 to 2007, Head of the Department of Computer Science from 1997 to 2001, and advanced from Assistant to full Professor of Computer Science. He has also held teaching positions at Adelaide University and Amherst College. Dr. Zhao earned PhD and MS degrees from University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1986 and 1983, respectively, and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Shaanxi Normal University in 1982. Dr. Zhao is the author of several hundred publications and has more than 10,000 citations.