Obituary of the Insitute for Professor Phuoc Tran-Gia
The Department of Computer Science mourns the loss of our esteemed colleague Professor Phuoc Tran-Gia, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on May 17, 2023, at the age of 70.
It is with deep sadness and grief that we say goodbye to our esteemed colleague and friend, Phuoc Tran-Gia, who has passed away far too early. His work and commitment have made a lasting impact on the Institute of Computer Science as well as on Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg; he has, with courage, innovation and vision, substantially advanced computer science in research and teaching at our university. As Dean, he successfully steered the fortunes of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science from 2007 to 2009.
Phuoc Tran-Gia was an outstanding and internationally renowned scientist. With his vision and charisma, he has inspired, motivated and guided many people on their professional and personal journey through life. His personality has contributed significantly to the appointment of various scientists at the institute.
He has passed on his fascination with research in computer science and especially in communication networks as well as their performance evaluation to generations of scientists and students. As a mentor, he was a role model for many in all areas – as an excellent scientist, as a colleague, as a chair holder, as dean, as vice president, … above all, however, as a human being!
Academic Career
Phuoc Tran-Gia was born in Da Nang, Vietnam, in 1953. As one of the best high school graduates in Vietnam, he came to Germany in 1970. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Stuttgart and graduated with a degree in engineering in 1977. After that he worked as an engineer on "Software design of digital SPC switching systems" at Standard Elektrik Lorenz (SEL, now Alcatel-Lucent) until 1979.
He then became a research assistant at the University of Siegen, where he completed his doctorate under Professor Paul Kühn in 1982. The topic of his doctorate was the modelling and analysis of overload problems in computer-controlled telephone switching systems. To this day his results are used in the energy management of data center servers that are operated in hot and cold standby, or in the modeling of the core network of mobile networks.
Together with Professor Kühn, he went to the University of Stuttgart, where he was a research group leader from 1983 to 1986 while working on his habilitation. From 1986 to 1988 he worked at IBM Research Division in Rüschlikon, Zurich, to conduct research on the architecture and performance evaluation of communication systems. He completed his habilitation in 1988 with a thesis on the "Discrete-Time Analysis of Traffic Theoretical Models in Computer and Communication Systems".
Also in 1988, Phuoc Tran-Gia was appointed to the Chair of Computer Science III (Communication Networks) at JMU, where he had already been working as a lecturer for computer networks since 1985. He headed the Chair of Communication Networks for 30 years. When he was given emeritus status in 2018, he had supervised 46 doctorates and six habilitations. Twelve of its alumni are meanwhile professors, and for many of them, he was far more than just a doctoral supervisor! As a mentor, Phuoc Tran-Gia has always provided valuable scientific as well as personal advice and support to his mentees. He has helped many people in difficult phases as well and was thus able to influence their lives in a positive way.
Outstanding Research Achievements
Phuoc Tran-Gia was a brilliant scientist who, due to his numerous research contributions, played a leading role in the national and international research community. His research foci were on the architecture, modelling and performance evaluation of communication networks. Exploring the possibilities and potentials that go beyond the current Internet landscape, Phuoc Tran-Gia has set the tone of national and international research on the Internet of the future. His research dealt with reflecting on future developments, technologies and paradigms that could fundamentally change the way and means of our networking and communicating. One of his most important and most challenging projects was the coordination of the BMBF project G-Lab (German-Lab), which aimed at providing an experimental platform and corresponding studies on security, reliability and quality in the Internet of the future. Between 2008 and 2012, a total of 29 partners from universities, research institutes and companies were cooperating in the G-Lab project.
Beyond that, his research focused on the planning and optimization of communication networks, network and resource management, especially of mobile networks, the modeling of network dynamics and control, the quality of service in communication networks, in particular the quality experienced by the user, techniques of software and programmable networks, network virtualization and crowdsourcing.
In recognition of his merits and scientific achievements, Phuoc Tran-Gia has received numerous Best Paper Awards and, in particular, the following prizes: He was awarded the Fred W. Ellersick Prize in 2013 for the best article in the past three years of the IEEE Communications Society on a contribution to modeling the quality of experience in communication networks.
In 2016, Phuoc Tran-Gia received the Arne Jensen Lifetime Award for his great contribution to traffic theory in communication networks and his exceptional commitment to the organization and community of the International Teletraffic Congress (ITC). Also in 2016, he received the Robert Piloty Prize for his exceptional achievements in the field of information technology and computer science, especially in the field of the Internet of the future.
Phuoc Tran-Gia enjoyed great international reputation and was, among other things, member of a network of excellence on the Internet of the Future (2003-2011), member of the steering committee of the BMBF project KING "Key Components for the Mobile Internet of the Next Generation" (2001-2004),Vice-Chair of the European project "Analysis and Design of Advanced Multiservice Networks supporting Mobility, Multimedia, and Internetworking" (COST 279, 2000-2005), and Chair of the European project "Impact of New Services on the Architecture and Performance of Broadband Networks" (COST 257, 1996-2000). He was director and founding coordinator of an interdisciplinary research center, the Center for Network Optimization (CNO) with Nortel from 1997 to 2000. He has co-founded several international IT companies, including the Infosim Group, headquartered in Würzburg, where he was Managing Director from 1999 to 2002.
Due to his outstanding reputation, he was often appointed reviewer by the German Research Foundation (DFG), by the BMBF and for European funded projects. The Bavarian State Ministry appointed him member of a panel of experts on communication technologies. During his career, he has published more than 200 scientific papers and more than 20 patents. Besides, he published seven books, among them one on "Performance Modeling and Analysis of Communication Networks" in 2021. Retired, he continued the art of modeling in another area – capturing the essence of the world on canvas.
International Networking and Teaching of the Highest Standard
International networking in research and teaching was one of his guiding principles at JMU. He thus made our university and Würzburg a flagship for top research in the field of communication networks. He organized various international events which attracted experts from all over the world to Würzburg. At these events, emphasis was always placed not only on professional exchange, but also on personal networking, an appropriate ambience, and a social program, which is unforgotten to its members. In the years 2006-2012, the EuroView workshop series brought Internet experts from all over the world to Würzburg.
A highlight was the 28th edition of the renowned ITC conference in 2016, the first international conference in the field of networking science & practice since 1955. To this day, the conference dinner in the Garden Hall of the Residenz is remembered by many not only because of its high-class program with international guests from all over the world, but especially because Phuoc Tran-Gia spontaneously initiated a music concert with two of the conference participants, which provided the musical framework for the conference dinner.
Phuoc Tran-Gia was also active in international teaching and regularly gave lectures as block courses at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Vietnam. Early in 2023 still, he was lecturing on communication networks and their performance evaluation at HUST. Everyone lucky enough to meet him in person was immediately fascinated by his enthusiasm and charisma. His gift for effortlessly modelling complex interrelationships and communication systems to tackle a research question was inspiring. He therefore was always a welcome guest speaker at conferences and colloquia all over the world. His students, too, were quickly infected with his enthusiasm. He never failed to prepare himself meticulously for his courses, which included the areas of information transmission, computer networks and communication systems, as well as the performance evaluation of distributed systems. He was visionary enough to introduce a lecture on neural networks and their applications back in the nineties already, when artificial intelligence was still far from displaying its potential. In 2015, Phuoc Tran-Gia was elected Vice President of JMU. In this position, which he held for three years, he was responsible for internationalization, alumni, information technology and public relations, continuously developing these areas with great commitment. For this, he was awarded the University’s honorary citizenship at the foundation celebration of JMU in 2020.
With Phuoc Tran-Gia, we have lost a highly respected scientist, colleague and friend and we will miss him.
The Institute of Computer Science
