Making biometric recognition a reality

Professor Anil K. Jain, founding member of the MBZUAI Board of Trustees and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University, has been honored for his achievements in technology transfer.

Jain’s research in the area of biometric recognition has earned him the 2023 Technology Transfer Achievement Award from Michigan State University in recognition of his numerous advances and patents in the field. Jain is one of the most cited computer scientists in the world according to Research.com.

Biometric recognition is the science of uniquely identifying individuals based on their physical characteristics such as fingerprints and face. While this technology has been successfully used in law enforcement for over 100 years, it has now become the standard method of establishing a person’s identity in the digital era. From unlocking smartphones, accessing e-services, authorizing e-payments, clearing immigration, and boarding a plane, the use of biometric recognition has become an unavoidable aspect of our daily lives.

Jain is one of the pioneers who ushered in this transformation by developing many of the core algorithms required for compact representation of biometric patterns and efficient search involving hundreds of millions of identities. Rather than being satisfied with their academic pursuits, Jain and his students walked the extra mile to license these technologies to leading industry partners. Jain has also served as an advisor to India’s Aadhaar, the world’s largest biometric-based civil registration system with 1.37 billion enrolments since its design and inception in 2008.

This technology transfer award is a recognition of Jain’s painstaking efforts over the past three decades that have propelled biometric technologies from the lab into a public good.

About Professor Anil Jain

Anil Jain earned his B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering at the Ohio State University. He then joined Michigan State University, where he has been a faculty member for almost five decades.

For his research contributions in pattern recognition, computer vision and biometrics, Jain has been awarded Guggenheim, Humboldt and Fulbright fellowships and King-Sun Fu Prize. He has been elected to the National Academy of Inventors, U.S. and Indian National Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences and The World Academy of Sciences.