Amanda Randles Receives 2023 ACM Prize in Computing
April 24, 2024
ACM has named Amanda Randles the recipient of the 2023 ACM Prize in Computing for groundbreaking contributions to computational health through innovative algorithms, tools, and high-performance computing methods for diagnosing and treating a variety of human diseases.
Randles is the Alfred Winborne and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering. She is known for developing new computational tools to harness the world’s most powerful supercomputers to create highly precise simulations of biophysical processes. Her early work included creating accurate 3D simulations of how blood flows through the circulatory system. More recently, she and her team developed biomedical simulations that yield direct and concrete impacts on patient care, including simulations of 700,000 heart beats (the previous state-of-the-art was of 30 heart beats), the interaction of millions of cells, and cancer cells moving through the body.
“Developing the best tools to help doctors prevent disease and improve patient care is one of the most worthwhile endeavors,” said ACM President Yannis Ioannidis. “Amanda Randles’s work addresses some of humanity’s most significant health challenges, such as heart disease and cancer. Every day, computers enable significant advances in many fields. Behind these advances there is always someone who has the vision to employ computing against a scientific challenge and the insight to devise and develop innovative methods to address the challenge. Amanda Randles has been that someone and has used her experience and technological breadth and depth to open new possibilities at the intersection of computation and biophysics. I am truly excited with what she has achieved and I’m eager to see where she takes us next. I always look forward to the announcement of the ACM Prize in Computing, ACM’s second most prestigious honor after the ACM A.M. Turing Award. Amanda joins a long series of young professionals we have honored with this award, who are creating new paradigms of scientific thought and demonstrate with their work the vast potential of what’s ahead in technology.”
The ACM Prize in Computing recognizes early-to-mid-career computer scientists whose research contributions have fundamental impact and broad implications. The award carries a prize of $250,000 from an endowment provided by Infosys Ltd., a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting.
