ACM and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE CS) have named David A. Padua, Donald Biggar Willett Professor Emeritus in Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, as the recipient of the 2024 ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award. The Ken Kennedy Award recognizes groundbreaking achievements in parallel and high performance computing. Padua is cited for innovative and usable contributions to the theory and practice of parallel compilation and tools, as well as service to the computing community.
Padua received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Padua is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). His honors also include receiving the Harry H. Goode Memorial Award from the IEEE Computer Society, and an honorary PhD from the University of Vallodolid, Spain. At CLEI he has been Invited Conference Speaker, Chair of the Latin American Symposium on Infrastructure, Hardware and Software, and Editor of CLEI Electronic Journal.
ACM and the IEEE Computer Society co-sponsor the Kennedy Award, which was established in 2009 to recognize substantial contributions to programmability and productivity in computing and significant community service or mentoring contributions. It was named for the late Ken Kennedy, founder of Rice University’s computer science program and a world expert on high-performance computing. The Kennedy Award carries a US $5,000 honorarium endowed by IEEE CS and ACM.
