Five Sun Labs Members Recognized by ACM

October 30, 2006 - For their contributions to both the practical and theoretical aspects of computing and information technology, the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) has named four Sun Labs researchers as ACM Distinguished Engineers, and Laura Hill, Sun Labs Assistant Director, as an ACM Distinguished Member.

Jo Ebergen, Sun Distinguished Engineer, is the head technical lead of the Sun Labs VLSI Research Group. Internationally recognized for his leadership in asynchronous circuit design, Jo has designed and help build many test chips exploring new territory in asynchronous circuit design, developed methods and algorithms for CAD tools, and invented new algorithms for doing floating-point division.

Susan Landau, Sun Distinguished Engineer, is a world expert in computational algebra and number theory, mathematical areas intimately related to cryptography, and in security policy. Susan has done significant research in algebraic algorithms and symbolic computation and has had major impact on the directions of U.S. cryptography policy.

Chris Vick, Senior Staff Engineer, with a long and distinguished track record of engineering achievements, is an industry expert in the fields of virtual machine design and implementation, compilers, including both static and dynamic optimization, and processor instruction set architecture.

Mario Wolczko, Sun Distinguished Engineer is a recognized industry expert whose rare breadth of technical expertise spans virtual machine design and implementation, hardware optimization for objects, and performance instrumentation. Mario was one of the first in the industry to look at how objects, and Java in particular, could be supported in hardware, without negatively impacting performance in other (non- Java) workloads.

Laura Hill, most recently Sun Labs Assistant Director, has also been part of Sun's IT organization and has recently moved to Robyn Denholm's organization, Strategic Planning & Process Simplification. Laura will focus her considerable talents and organizational skills on Sun's new operating system, a process designed to coordinate, review, and evolve Sun's strategy and to prioritize the allocation of resources and leadership.

"The computing disciplines are the drivers behind much of the world's innovations," said David Patterson, past president of ACM. "These prominent scientists, engineers and professionals have made breakthroughs in computing that benefit our world everyday."

ACM created the Distinguished Member category, which includes scientists, engineers, and other members, to recognize the range of contributions that these computing professionals are making to everyday life. These inaugural designees have been cited for achievements that have solved problems in virtually every industry including computer security, robotics, computer graphics, mobile computing, wireless networking, and Web searching, among others.

For more information about the selection criteria and a complete list of 2006 Distinguished Members, click on: http://awards.acm.org/homepage.cfm?awd=157