ACM (the Association for Computing Machinery) has named 37 of its members as Distinguished Members in recognition of their individual contributions to both the practical and theoretical aspects of computing and information technology. The new ACM Distinguished Members include computer scientists and engineers from some of the world’s leading corporations, research labs, and universities. They are being honored for significant advances in computing technology that have dramatically influenced progress in science, engineering, business, and many other areas of human endeavor.

“These prominent men and women originate from many parts of the computing field, but they have in common a commitment to technology and a passion for progress,” said Dame Wendy Hall, president of ACM. “Their respective contributions to computing drive innovations that determine the economic and social developments that, in turn, sustain competitiveness in the global arena. Their achievements touch virtually every industry in the world, and we celebrate their entrepreneurial and creative spirit for the way it has changed our lives.”

Nineteen of the 2008 recipients represent renowned corporations in the high technology sector. Their multi-faceted achievements have resulted in a variety of innovations, including data mining, requirements analysis in systems engineering, memory and storage systems and processor designs, artificial intelligence, mobile services platforms, electronic commerce, usability research, process management technology, Web searching, and optical networking protocols.

Within the academic universe, 18 recipients from prominent universities were recognized for achievements in a wide range of areas including optimization techniques, programming languages, software engineering, artificial intelligence, information retrieval modeling, computational complexity theory, design automation, behavioral authentication data, neural network techniques, natural language programming, grid computing, fault tolerance, and computational electromagnetics.

Prof. Ernesto Damiani has been recognized as 2008 Distinguished Scientist.

For more information, visit ACM Distinguished Members for Advances in Computing Technology page.