Madison, WI and Washington, D.C. — The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, has elected three faculty from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Computer Sciences Department to the newest class of AAAS Fellows, among the most distinct honors within the scientific community.
- Mark D. Hill, Gene M. Amdahl and John P. Morgridge Professor Emeritus, Department of Computer Sciences, and Azure Partner Hardware Architect, Microsoft:
For distinguished contributions to advanced computer architecture, particularly for memory system design. - Somesh Jha, Professor and Lubar Chair in Computer Sciences:
For distinguished contributions to the fields of formal methods and information security, particularly adapting techniques from formal methods to devise rigorous approaches to information security. - Jignesh Patel, Professor, Department of Computer Sciences, and DataChat, Inc, co-founder, CEO, and president:
For distinguished contributions to the field of database systems, particularly for high performance and scalable data processing methods.
“The election of these professors to AAAS is recognition of each’s incredible accomplishments in their careers and a testimony to the excellence of Computer Sciences here at UW-Madison,” said Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau, Computer Sciences Department Chair.
The 2021 class of AAAS Fellows includes 564 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines who are being recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements.
“AAAS is proud to bestow the honor of AAAS Fellow to some of today’s brightest minds who are integral to forging our path into the future,” said Dr. Sudip Parikh, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. “We celebrate these distinguished individuals for their invaluable contributions to the scientific enterprise.”
“I am pleased to be elevated to AAAS Fellow as it signifies that the association values our work and increasingly views the computing field on par with the older sciences,” said Mark Hill.
Hill is Partner Hardware Architect with Microsoft Azure (2020-present) where he leads software-hardware pathfinding. He is also the Gene M. Amdahl and John P. Morgridge Professor Emeritus of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, following his 1988-2020 service in Computer Sciences and Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research interests include parallel-computer system design, memory system design, and computer simulation. Hill’s work is highly collaborative with over 160 co-authors. He received the 2019 Eckert-Mauchly Award and is a fellow of IEEE and the ACM. He served on the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) 2013-21 including as CCC Chair 2018-20, Computing Research Association (CRA) Board of Directors 2018-20, and Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department Chair 2014-2017. Hill has a PhD in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Somesh Jha said, “I am honored to receive this distinction. It wouldn’t be possible without the support of my colleagues, students, and collaborators. I am really proud to be a faculty member in the UW-Madison Computer Sciences Department.”
Jha received his B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in Electrical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) under the supervision of Prof. Edmund Clarke (a Turing award winner). Currently, Somesh Jha is the Lubar Professor in the Computer Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). His work focuses on analysis of security protocols, survivability analysis, intrusion detection, formal methods for security, and analyzing malicious code. Recently, he has focused his interests on topics related to trustworthy ML. Somesh Jha has published several articles in highly-refereed conferences and prominent journals. His work has been highly cited (according to Google Scholar his h-index is 89 and he has more than 40,000 citations). He has won numerous best-paper and distinguished-paper awards. Prof Jha has also received the NSF career award, the CAV award, and IIT-Delhi Distinguished Alumnus Award. Prof. Jha is the fellow of the ACM and IEEE, and now the AAAS.
“I’m really thankful for the wonderful students and collaborators at UW and outside who have invested their time working with my group,” said Jignesh Patel. “None of this would have been possible without them, and of course my (very tolerant) family.”
Patel is a professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has served on the faculty since September 2008. He has graduated over 20 PhD students, and his papers have been selected as the best papers in the conference in several top database venues, including ACM SIGMOD and VLDB. He is Fellow of both the ACM and the IEEE computing organizations. He has also won teaching awards at both the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan. He is also a serial entrepreneur.
AAAS Fellows are a distinguished cadre of scientists, engineers, and innovators who have been recognized for their achievements since 1874. Fellows’ disciplines range from research, teaching, and technology, to administration in academia, industry, and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public. The AAAS Fellow honor comes with an expectation that recipients maintain the highest standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.
The new Fellows will be celebrated later this year during an in-person gathering when it is feasible from a public health and safety perspective. The new class is also featured in the AAAS News & Notes section of the January 2022 edition of Science.
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The Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers a dynamic environment for study, research, and professional growth. Our award-winning faculty continues to grow, with twelve new faculty members hired in the last two years. We are recognized as having the world’s leading research groups in many areas of computer science, and we provide an unbeatable learning environment for students at all levels and in all areas of computer science. Innovative research and teaching make UW-Madison Computer Sciences a top-ranked, top-notch department in one of the world’s premier universities.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. For additional information about AAAS, visit www.aaas.org.