Indian-American named first woman CTO of US government’s FCC

She will advise Indian-American Chairman of the FCC Ajit Pai and the agency on technology and engineering issues, and work closely with the Office of Engineering and Technology. Ghosh will take charge on January 13 next year. She replaces Dr Eric Burger.

The FCC regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and US territories.

An independent US government agency overseen by Congress, the FCC is the federal agency responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations.

“As the FCC moves aggressively to advance American leadership in 5G, Dr Ghosh’s deep technical knowledge of wireless technologies will be invaluable,” said Chairman Pai.

“Dr Ghosh has both conducted and overseen research into cutting-edge wireless issues in academia and industry. Her expertise is also broad, ranging from the internet of things, medical telemetry, and broadcast standards. And it bears noting that this is an historic appointment: I am proud that Dr Ghosh will be the FCC’s first female CTO, and hope her example inspires young women everywhere to consider careers in STEM fields. I’m grateful to her for serving in this important position at this important time,” he said.

Ghosh received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1991, and BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1986. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

According to the FCC, Ghosh has been serving as a rotating Program Director at the National Science Foundation since September 2017 in the Computer and Network System Division within the Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering.