Dear members of the Information Theory family,

I wanted to reach out again and update you on our ongoing efforts regarding the impact of COVID-19 on our society’s activities. You can find all information regarding the impact of COVID-19 on our dedicated web page  https://www.itsoc.org/covid .

Our thoughts are with members and their loved ones impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  At this point, we are slowly getting used to the new normal of working and living our lives in cyberspace, recognizing that we are likely in this for the long haul. Our society operations continue virtually.

Due to the disruption in our schedules in the recent weeks where we had the annual deadlines for our individual recognitions, namely the James Massey Award , the Claude Shannon Award , and the Aaron Wyner Award , the decision has been made to reopen the nominations portal until April 6, 2020. Please consider nominating qualified individuals for these recognitions.

In my message on March 22, I mentioned that new methods of delivery are likely to emerge in this new normal. As a follow up, I wish to provide you with an important update regarding the society’s flagship conference. 

The organizers of the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT) will run ISIT 2020 as a virtual online conference on the same dates, June 21-26, 2020, in a manner that resembles the in-person experience as much as possible.

This decision has been made because the health and safety of members and attendees remain the first priority in this global health crisis. Please visit https://2020.ieee-isit.org/ for details and updates.

On behalf of all our membership, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to the organizers of ISIT for this historic undertaking. 

I wish all of you and your loved ones good health.

Sincerely,
Aylin Yener
President, The IEEE Information Theory Society
March 26, 2020