Nelson Luis Saldanha da Fonseca (Nelson Fonseca) received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 1994. He is a full professor at the Institute of Computing, State University of Campinas, Brazil. He has held visiting professor positions at the University of Trento and the University of Pisa and lecturer positions at Pontifical Catholic University. He also worked with the Computer Communications group at IBM Rio Scientific Center.
Nelson has published over 500 refereed papers and received numerous awards, including the IEEE ComSoc Transmission, Access Optical Systems Technical Committee Best Paper Award (2014, 2020), IEEE GLOBECOM 2012 Best Paper Award, and IEEE LATINCOM 2011 Best Paper Award. He has supervised over 90 graduate theses and dissertations, with his students winning over 20 awards in Latin American thesis and dissertation contests.
He served as an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer and Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (2008-2012). Nelson was the General Chair of IEEE GLOBECOM 2022 and TPC Co-Chair for IEEE WCNC 2019 and IEEE ICC 2016, co-chairing over ten symposia in IEEE ICC and IEEE GLOBECOM.
Nelson's honors include the IEEE Communications Society Education Award, Harold Sobol Award for Exemplary Services to Meetings and Conferences, Joseph LoCicero Award for Exemplary Service to Publications, Latin America Region Distinguished Service Award, the Medal of the Chancellor of the University of Pisa (2007), the Zeferino Vaz award for academic productivity (2003, 2018), and the Elsevier Computer Network Journal Editor of the Year award (2001).
Currently, Nelson is ComSoc's President-Elect and chair of the ComSoc Strategic Planning Committee. He has served in various leadership roles, including IEEE ComSoc Vice President for Conferences (2022-2023), Technical and Education Activities (2018-2019), Publications (2016-2017), Member Relations (2012-2013), and as an elected Member at Large of the IEEE ComSoc Board of Governors (2009-2011). He has also been the Director for Conference Development (2020-2021, 2014-2015), Director for Latin America (2008-2009), Director for On-Line Services (2002-2003), and chaired several technical committees.
Nelson has been instrumental in founding several initiatives within ComSoc, including the Conference Travel Grant Program, Student Competition, IEEE Networking Letters, IEEE LATINCOM, and IEEE NFV-SDN.