At the 2026 IEEE/IAPR International Joint Conference on Biometrics (IJCB 2026) recently held in Rome, Italy, Chao FAN, a PhD graduate from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), won the 2026 IEEE Biometrics Council “Best Doctoral Dissertation Award.”

Chao FAN (far left) with his supervisor Shiqi YU (far right)

At the award ceremony, Shiqi YU (second from left) received the award on behalf of Chao FAN.

Dr. Chao FAN received his PhD from SUSTech under the supervision of Associate Professor Shiqi YU from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. His doctoral thesis, “Gait Representation Learning and Recognition,” carried out systematic research on unified experimental platforms, million-scale datasets, and large model methods, advancing fundamental methods, data evaluation, and model systems in this field. Related results were published in major AI journals and conferences such as IEEE TPAMI, CVPR, AAAI, and applied to scenarios like long-distance identity recognition and human health assessment.

The IEEE Biometrics Council is one of 47 professional Societies and Councils under IEEE, dedicated to the development of biometric recognition technology and its applications. The “Best Doctoral Dissertation Award” was established in 2018 to express recognition for and promote outstanding efforts and contributions in doctoral dissertations in the field of interest to the IEEE Biometrics Council.