Lero director Professor Mike Hinchey has been selected as president-elect of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), which has more than 500,000 members worldwide.

Limerick native Hinchey’s election as the 18th president of IFIP was made at its General Assembly in Daejeon, Korea. He will serve as president-elect until the next General Assembly in Costa Rica in September 2016, after which he will take on a three-year term as president.

IFIP incorporates ICT professional associations from more than 50 countries and regions with a total membership of more than half a million.

Recognised by the UN, IFIP brings together more than 3,500 scientists from industry and academia, organising them into more than 100 working groups and 13 technical committees to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing.

Director of Lero and Professor of Software Engineering at the University of Limerick, Professor Hinchey was previously Director of the Software Engineering Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland.

The Limerick man remains a consultant to NASA. His work has been implemented in various space projects and will be incorporated in future missions. Particular areas of software research for Professor Hinchey include formal methods, autonomous systems and software reliability.