Adam Dunkels awarded Roger Needham Prize
Dr. Adam Dunkels, senior scientist at SICS, was awarded the 2008 Roger Needham award for his doctoral thesis "Programming Memory-Constrained Networked Embedded Systems" at a ceremony in Glasgow, Scotland, on April 3, 2008. The prize sum is 2000 EUR, donated by Microsoft Research. The EuroSys Roger Needham award is given annually to a European doctoral thesis that is “regarded to be an exceptional, innovative contribution to knowledge in the systems area”. The prize is named after the British computer scientist Roger Needham, who did fundamental contributions to computer security.
Dr. Adam Dunkels is well known in the embedded systems community for his software and programming mechanisms that are used by hundreds of companies in embedded devices ranging from satellites and airplanes to network switches and TV production equipment. His software and programming mechanisms forms the basis of his doctoral thesis. The award jury specifically appreciated that Dr. Dunkels’ thesis combines advanced systems development, development of new programming concepts, and a high publication impact with far-reaching industrial adoption of his research results.
"The 2008 Roger Needham award not only recognizes my research results, but also highlights the importance of networked embedded systems as a research area," says Dr. Adam Dunkels. "Ninety-eight percent of all microprocessors sold today are used in embedded systems and the number of low-power wireless systems is growing rapidly. Staying ahead in this field is very important for the competitive advantage of European industry."
In February 2008, Dr. Adam Dunkels received the Chester Carlson prize for his work on Interner-connectivity for embedded systems.
Dr. Adam Dunkels is 29 years old and has been a researcher at SICS since 2000. He is born and raised in the town of Luleå, Sweden, and did his undergraduate studies at Luleå University of Technology prior to joining SICS. He wrote is PhD thesis at SICS and received his PhD degree from Mälardalen University in 2007. He lives with his wife and three children outside of Stockholm, Sweden.
The Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS) is an independent non-profit research organization that strengthens Swedish industry by conducting advanced research in strategic areas of computer science. SICS actively promotes the use of new research ideas and results in industry and in society at large. SICS collaborates with both large and small companies, both in Sweden and internationally.
EuroSys is the professional society for Computer Systems in Europe and promotes excellence in Computer Systems education, research and industry in Europe. EuroSys is the approved European chapter of ACM Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (SIGOPS). EuroSys was formed in 2005 and is supported by IBM, Microsoft, Google, VMWare, and Hewlett Packard.
Contact: Adam Dunkels (http://www.sics.se/~adam/, adam@sics.se), +46 8 633 1614, Staffan Truvé, CEO SICS (http://www.sics.se/people/truve, truve@sics.se), +46 70 593 38 85, Eno Thereska, Microsoft Research and EuroSys (etheres@microsoft.com, +44-1223-479700).
Photo by Lars Geiger