Tanik named Wallace R. Bunn Chair of Telecommunications

The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees recently appointed Murat M. Tanik, Ph.D., to the Wallace R. Bunn Chair of Telecommunications in the UAB School of Engineering.
Written by: Katherine Shonesy
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Murat TanikThe University of Alabama System Board of Trustees recently appointed Murat M. Tanik, Ph.D., to the Wallace R. Bunn Chair of Telecommunications in the UAB School of Engineering.

“Murat Tanik is the perfect fit for this prestigious appointment,” said School of Engineering Dean Iwan Alexander, Ph.D. “With his years of expertise in telecommunications research and his leadership abilities, he will be able to use this position to create opportunities for collaboration within the university and with external partners.”

Tanik joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1998 and was named chair of the department in 2013. He is the third person to hold the Bunn chair, which was established by a gift from BellSouth in 1988.

Tanik says he plans to use the Bunn chair to promote the UAB Center for Integrated Systems. Within the center, Tanik says he is developing two laboratories with industry support: the Signal Processing and Embedded Systems Laboratory and the Big Data Research and Analytics Laboratory. Additionally, the Continuous Collaboration STEM Innovation (or C²-STEM-I) Laboratory will be supported by these two technical labs.

“Through these laboratories, we will be able to provide services to the community and to the university,” said Tanik. “I think that is an important part of the Bunn chair responsibility — not just the funding it supplies, but the legacy of Wallace R. Bunn and what this endowment means to the community and the university.”