Indian American computer scientist Anil K. Jain has joined the board of directors of ROC, a Denver-based company developing biometric, video analytics and digital evidence technology. The company announced the appointment on Oct. 6, effective Oct. 5.

Jain is a University Distinguished Professor and the Douglas E. Zongker Endowed Professor at Michigan State University, where he has taught and conducted research for more than 50 years. His work in pattern recognition, computer vision and biometric recognition helped establish technical foundations for modern fingerprint and facial-recognition systems.

ROC said Jain will advise the company as it expands its Vision AI platform across national security, public safety and commercial markets. The company develops American-made systems that combine biometrics, video analysis and identity intelligence for government agencies and private-sector customers.

Jain’s research has produced a dozen patents and has been licensed for use in operational systems. He has written 15 books, including major reference works on biometrics, fingerprint recognition, face recognition and data clustering. He also served as editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

His public-service record includes membership on U.S. National Academies panels examining facial recognition, information technology, biometrics and improvised explosive devices. He has also served on the U.S. Defense Science Board, the Forensic Science Standards Board and an American Association for the Advancement of Science working group on latent fingerprints.

Jain earned his bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, then completed master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering at Ohio State University. He joined Michigan State in 1974 and has mentored researchers who later advanced biometric and artificial intelligence technologies in academia, government and industry.

He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and is a fellow of major scientific and engineering societies. His appointment gives ROC a board member whose research helped move biometric identification from academic study into widely used real-world systems.

Key Takeaways About Anil K. Jain

• He has joined ROC’s board of directors.
• He has taught at Michigan State for more than 50 years.
• His research helped establish modern biometric-recognition technology.
• He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
• His work includes fingerprint, facial-recognition and computer-vision systems.