This article is published in the October 2019 issue.

VMware Systems Research Award


The VMware academic team is pleased to offer an annual award in support of the computer science research community. The objective of this award is to call attention to a valuable and promising body of emerging computer science systems research, and provide support for continued advances by an emerging research leader.

Award Characteristics:

  • Frequency of Award: Annual
  • Award amount: $100,000
  • Award Term: The award will be in the form of an unrestricted gift to the recipient’s university, in support of his/her research
  • 2016 winner: Matei Zaharia, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University
  • 2017 winner: Tim Kraska, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT
  • 2018 winner: Tiark Rompf, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University

Key Dates:

  • Nomination deadline: October 25, 2019
  • Award announcement: December 6, 2019

Nomination process:

  • Nominations may be submitted by the department chair (one per department chair).
  • Each submission should include a proposed citation of at most 20 words, contact information for three references, and a one-page summary statement concerning the originality, impact, and future potential of the nominee’s research.
  • Nominations must be submitted via email to sysaward@vmware.com

Eligibility:

  • Early-career university faculty worldwide (within 5 years of their first tenure-track appointment).
  • Former full-time VMware employees are not eligible; previous interns are eligible.

Evaluation Criteria:
Originality, impact, and future potential of early-career research results in computer science systems research.

Award Committee:
The Award Committee is made up of distinguished faculty in the field of Computer Science systems research, as well as senior VMware research leaders. The Award Committee will be responsible for reviewing nominations and making the final selection of an award recipient.

Committee Chair:

  • Michael Stonebraker (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Committee Members:

  • Greg Ganger (Carnegie Mellon University)
  • Jennifer Rexford (Princeton University)
  • Edouard Bugnion (EPFL)
  • Charles Isbell (Georgia Institute of Technology)
  • Chris Ramming (VMware)
  • Pratap Subrahmanyam (VMware)
  • David Tennenhouse (VMware)
  • Ole Agesen (VMware)

For more information about VMware Research Group, click here VRG.

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