View the full list of ACM Awards

Mark Horowitz, a Professor at Stanford University, was named the recipient of the 2022 ACM - IEEE CS Eckert-Mauchly Award for for contributions to microprocessor memory systems. Horowitz was the first to identify the processor to dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) interface as a key bottleneck that required architecture and circuit optimization. He pioneered high-bandwidth DRAM interfaces. In addition, modern DRAM interfaces such as SDDR and LPDDR were strongly influenced by his techniques.

Raluca Ada Popa, University of California, Berkeley, is the recipient of the 2021 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award for the design of secure distributed systems. The systems protect confidentiality against attackers with full access to servers while maintaining full functionality. Popa’s research provides confidentiality guarantees where servers only need to store encrypted data, processing it without decrypting. Thus, hackers see only encrypted data. Computing on encrypted data, possible in theory, has been prohibitively inefficient inpractice. Popa addresses this by replacing generality with building systems for a broad set of applications with common traits, and developing encryption schemes tailored to these application archetypes.

Xavier Leroy, Collège de France; Sandrine Blazy, University of Rennes 1, IRISA; Zaynah Dargaye, Nomadic Labs; Jacques-Henri Jourdan, CNRS, Laboratoire Méthodes Formelles; Michael Schmidt, AbsInt Angewandte Informatik; Bernhard Schommer, Saarland University and AbsInt Angewandte Informatik GmbH; and Jean-Baptiste Tristan, Boston College, receive the ACM Software System Award for the development of CompCert, the first practically useful optimizing compiler targeting multiple commercial architectures that has a complete, mechanically checked proof of its correctness.

Avrim Blum, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago; Irit Dinur, Weizmann Institute; Cynthia Dwork, Harvard University; Frank McSherry, Materialize Inc.; Kobbi Nissim, Georgetown University; and Adam Davison Smith, Boston University, receive the ACM Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award for their fundamental contributions to the development of differential privacy. Their separate but related work formed a definition of differential privacy which captures the kind of privacy needed in statistical settings, where individual information must be protected while still allowing for discovery of common trends.

Carla Gomes of Cornell University receives the ACM - AAAI Allen Newell Award for establishing and nurturing the field of computational sustainability and for foundational contributions to artificial intelligence. Gomes is a leader in AI, particularly in reasoning, optimization, and the integration of learning and reasoning. She is the driving force behind the new subfield of computational sustainability, embodying the values of multidisciplinary research and social impact. Her research advances core computer science and AI while establishing rich connections to other disciplines.

ACM President Gabriele Kotsis has recognized Dame Wendy Hall for her technical contributions that have significantly influenced the development of the Semantic Web and the field of Web Science, her leadership and impact in shaping technology policy and informatics education internationally, and her committed and inspired work to strengthen ACM’s geographically diverse footprint by fostering regional councils to promote ACM activities in China, India, and Europe.

Judy Brewer receives the ACM Policy Award for her leadership of the Web Accessibility Initiative and development of multiple web accessibility standards, which have been adopted globally and improved accessibility for millions worldwide. Brewer leads the development of standards and strategies for inclusive web design, providing web developers with tools necessary to bring the power and the promise of the World Wide Web to millions of people.

Erik Altman receives the ACM Distinguished Service Award for leadership in the computer architecture communities, and for contributions to ACM organizational development. He has demonstrated excellence both as a computer architecture research scientist at IBM and as a driver of positive change within the Association for Computing Machinery and the IEEE Computer Society.

Mark Allen Weiss, a Professor at Florida International University, receives the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award for advancing the art and science of computer science (CS) education through his textbooks, research, and curriculum design, which have affected thousands of instructors and students worldwide.

ACM has named Éva Tardos of Cornell University as the 2022-2023 Athena Lecturer. Tardos is recognized for fundamental research contributions to combinatorial optimization, approximation algorithms, and algorithmic game theory, and for her dedicated mentoring and service to these communities. Tardos is one of the most influential leaders in the field of theoretical computer science and an outstanding educator, mentor, and leader in her scientific community.

ACM named Northeastern University’s Carla E. Brodley recipient of the inaugural ACM Frances E. Allen Award for Outstanding Mentoring. Brodley is recognized for significant personal mentorship and leadership in creating systemic programs that have increased diversity in computer science by creating mentoring opportunities for thousands at Northeastern and other universities across the US. An internationally recognized leader in the fields of machine learning, data mining, and artificial intelligence, Brodley has shown a deep commitment to mentoring and increasing diversity in computer science throughout her academic career.

ACM has named Pieter Abbeel of the University of California, Berkeley and the Co-Founder, President and Chief Scientist at Covariant the recipient of the 2021 ACM Prize in Computing for contributions to robot learning. Abbeel pioneered teaching robots to learn from human demonstrations (“apprenticeship learning”) and through their own trial and error (“reinforcement learning”), which have formed the foundation for the next generation of robotics. Abbeel’s groundbreaking research has helped shape contemporary robotics and continues to drive the future of the field.

ACM has named Jack J. Dongarra recipient of the 2021 ACM A.M. Turing Award for pioneering contributions to numerical algorithms and libraries that enabled high performance computational software to keep pace with exponential hardware improvements for over four decades. Dongarra is a University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Tennessee. He also holds appointments with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Manchester.

ACM and the Computer Science Teachers Association have announced the 2021-2022 recipients of the ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing. The award recognizes computer science talent in high school students and comes with a $10,000 prize, which they will receive at CSTA's annual conference in July. The 2020-2021 recipients are Harshal Bharatia, Plano Senior High School, Plano, Texas; Yash Narayan, The Nueva School, San Mateo, California; Shoumik Roychowdhury, Westwood High School, Austin, Texas; and Hiya Shah, Amador Valley High School, Pleasanton, California. Read the news release.

ACM has named 71 members 2021 ACM Fellows for significant contributions in areas including algorithms, computer science education, cryptography, data security and privacy, medical informatics, and mobile and networked systems, among other areas. The ACM Fellows program recognizes the top 1% of ACM Members for their outstanding accomplishments in computing and information technology and/or outstanding service to ACM and the larger computing community.

ACM has named 63 Distinguished Members for outstanding contributions to the field. All 2021 inductees are longstanding ACM members and were selected by their peers for a range of accomplishments that advance computing as a science and a profession. The ACM Distinguished Member program recognizes up to 10 percent of ACM worldwide membership based on professional experience and significant achievements in computing.