Professor Setti receives the 2025 IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Mac Van Valkenburg Award

About

Dean of the KAUST CEMSE Division Professor Gianluca Setti has received the 2025 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Circuits and Systems (CAS) Society Mac Van Valkenburg Award.

The IEEE CAS Society’s most esteemed award honors individuals for outstanding technical and scientific contributions, distinguished leadership with global impact and extraordinary advancements in one or more fields within the Society’s scope.

Professor Setti’s award honors both his technical breakthroughs and his community leadership; in particular, his pioneering spread-spectrum clocking techniques for electromagnetic interference mitigation in power electronics, which transformed semiconductor design practices.

Equally impactful was his work on compressed-sensing acquisition, where he tuned sequence statistics to match signal characteristics—laying the groundwork for today’s low-power analog-to-information converters employed in biomedical and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The Dean expressed sincere gratitude for the IEEE CAS Society recognition, which has previously honored pioneering scientists and engineers such as Sidney Darlington, Ernest Kuh, Charles Desoer and Mac Elwyn Van Valkenburg.

“I am especially moved, as their work shaped my own understanding of circuits, networks, and systems theory during my formative years as a student. I would have never imagined that, over the course of my career, I would be recognized by my community in the same way as those giants who inspired me,” he emphasized.

“This recognition is especially meaningful because it comes from my community, a community that I have had the honor of serving for nearly three decades. It reflects not just my own scientific journey but also the collective efforts of the students, collaborators, and colleagues I have had the privilege to work with, lead in some circumstances, and learn from in others. I share this award with all of them. It would not have been possible if it were not for each of them.”

Setti received his award at the 2025 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), held in London, U.K., from Sunday, May 25, to Wednesday, May 28.

A respected leader

Dean Setti, who joined KAUST in 2022, is a globally recognized authority in electronics for signal and data processing. Before joining KAUST, he held esteemed academic roles at Politecnico di Torino and the University of Ferrara in Italy. He earned his Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Bologna in 1997.

Professor Setti’s research is remarkably multidisciplinary, bridging fields such as nonlinear circuits, statistical signal processing, electromagnetic compatibility, compressive sensing, biomedical circuits and systems, IoT node design, power electronics, and machine learning for anomaly detection and predictive maintenance.

A respected leader in the IEEE community, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of the IEEE —the first non-U.S. appointee in this role— from 2019 to 2024, and held key roles, including IEEE Vice President for Publication Services and Products in 2013 and 2014.

Renowned for championing ethical research evaluation and addressing the challenges of open-access publishing, Setti has authored more than 320 scientific publications and four books, earning multiple best paper awards across top IEEE journals and conferences, mainly sponsored by the IEEE CAS Society.

“Beyond research, I have held leadership roles that shaped the IEEE CAS Society and IEEE at large. As Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems (Parts I & II), I improved review timeliness, increased submissions, and enhanced impact. As CAS Society President, I led the creation of a new journal, restructured the Executive Committee, and extended the presidential term to support sustained impact. As IEEE VP for Publications, I promoted responsible use of bibliometrics and advanced education on scholarly metrics.”

Looking ahead, Setti believes the field of circuits and systems will be increasingly driven by synergetic algorithm–hardware co-design, energy-efficient computing, edge artificial intelligence, and secure embedded systems.

“With growing interest in areas such as Tiny Machine Learning, edge sensing and computing systems, quantum technologies, and hardware for generative artificial intelligence, our field is poised to remain at the forefront of innovation—provided we stay rooted in strong foundational principles while embracing cross-disciplinary collaboration,” he noted.

“As the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, ‘It’s not the destination, it’s the journey,’” Setti said. “In doing research, we should never forget the privilege we have in doing an activity that may help improve the lives of future generations. I consider this award a powerful motivation to continue striving for innovation, mentorship, and service.”