Celebrating ACM's 2019 & 2020 Award Recipients: ACM Thacker Breakthrough in Computing Award

October 18, 2021

The surge of the COVID-19 delta variant, international travel restrictions and restrictions on indoor gatherings forced ACM to cancel its Awards Banquet planned for October 23, 2021.

We continue our series of emails containing videos highlighting the achievements of the 2019 and 2020 Award recipients that were prepared for the Banquet.

Click on the image below to view a short video about the 2020 recipient of the ACM Breakthrough Award.

click to view video

The ACM Breakthrough Award celebrates Chuck Thacker's pioneering contributions in computing and his long-term inspirational mentorship of generations of computer scientists. The award recognizes individuals or groups with the same out-of-the-box thinking and "can-do" approach to solving the unsolved that Thacker exhibited. The award is accompanied by a prize of $100,000, with financial support provided by Microsoft, Inc.

2020 Thacker Breakthrough in Computing Award

Michael Franz of the University of California, Irvine is recognized with the 2020 ACM Charles P. "Chuck" Thacker Breakthrough in Computing Award for the development of just-in-time compilation techniques that enable fast and feature-rich web services on the internet.

ACM welcomes nominations for candidates whose work exemplifies the best and most influential contributions to our community, and society at large. More information on nominating candidates for future awards is available on the ACM Awards website here.