David Abramson Named 2021 ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award Recipient
October 13, 2021
ACM and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE CS) have named David Abramson, a professor at the University of Queensland, as the recipient of the 2021 ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award. Abramson was recognized for contributions to parallel and distributed computing tools, with application from quantum chemistry to engineering design. He is also cited for his mentorship and service to the field. The award will be formally presented to Abramson in November at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC21).
Abramson has performed pioneering research in the design, implementation, and application of software tools for parallel and distributed systems. He has conducted foundational research in distributed and parallel middleware, addressing programmer productivity and software correctness, and has influenced multiple generations of researchers. His papers have been cited more than 12,000 times.
Over his career, Abramson has been General Chair, Program Committee Chair, or program committee member of many conferences related to performance and programmer productivity, and has mentored students as an advisor, through international internship programs, and by offering seminars and workshops.
ACM and the IEEE Computer Society co-sponsor the Kennedy Award, which was established in 2009 to recognize substantial contributions to programmability and productivity in computing and significant community service or mentoring contributions. It was named for the late Ken Kennedy, founder of Rice University’s computer science program and a world expert on high performance computing. The Kennedy Award carries a US $5,000 honorarium endowed by IEEE CS and ACM.
