Ivan Fair has extensive industrial and academic experience in telecommunications and data networking. He was a research and design engineer for both Bell Northern Research and MPR TelTech furthering their development of advanced fiber optic systems. It was during this industrial experience that he became involved in the area of coding for data communication networks, and returned to the academic environment to focus on this topic.
After receiving his doctorate, he joined Dalhousie University in Halifax before moving to the University of Alberta where he is now a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In addition to teaching communications and data networking courses, he supervises research projects and graduate students in these areas which has resulted in over 100 publications.
Ivan has held various administrative positions within the university environment, including Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has also been active in various volunteer professional activities, including assisting Engineers Canada with their development of an Electrical Engineering syllabus and being a member of the Board of Examiners for the Association of Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta.