W. Wallace McDowell Award

For outstanding recent theoretical, design, educational, practical, or other similar innovative contributions that fall within the scope of IEEE Computer Society interest

A certificate and $2,000 honorarium are presented for outstanding recent theoretical, design, educational, practical, or other similar innovative contributions that fall within the scope of IEEE Computer Society interest.

Nomination Deadline:

1 October 2026 - 11:59PM EDT

NOMINATE

The award nomination requires a minimum of 3 endorsements.

Nomination Questions (pdf)

2026 W. Wallace McDowell Award Subcommittee Chair

Rajesh Gupta, University of California, San Diego

Recent Award Recipient

Prof. Ankur Moitra
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2026 W. Wallace McDowell Award Recipient
"For groundbreaking contributions to high-dimensional learning —spanning mixture models, robust statistics, and quantum systems."

About Wallace McDowell

Past Recipients

2025 Raghu Meka: For contributions to complexity theory, pseudo randomness, communication complexity, and for establishing new connections between computer science and combinatorics, probability theory.
2024 Ming Li: For pioneering and enduring contributions to modern information theory and bioinformatics
2023 Amit P. Sheth: For pioneering and enduring contributions to information integration, data and service semantics, and knowledge-enhanced computing.
2022 Rafail Ostrovsky: For visionary contributions to computer security theory and practice, including foreseeing new cloud vulnerabilities and then pioneering corresponding novel solutions.
2021 Charu Aggarwal: For contributions to knowledge discovery and data mining.
2020 Sushil Jajodia: For contributions to the scientific and engineering principles that enable effective adaptive cyber defense.
2019 Rajesh K. Gupta: For seminal contributions in design and implementation of Microelectronic Systems-on-Chip and Cyberphysical Systems.
2018 Moti Yung: For innovative contributions to computer and network security, predicting, both attack scenarios and design needs in this important evolving era.
2017 Srinivas Devadas: For fundamental contributions that have shaped the field of secure hardware, impacting circuits, microprocessors, and systems.
2016 Dexter C. Kozen: For groundbreaking contributions to topics ranging from computational complexity, to the analysis of algebraic computations, to logics of programs and verification.
2015 Viktor K. Prasanna: For fundamental algorithmic and application specific architectural contributions to reconfigurable computing.
2014 Hanan Samet: For fundamental contributions to the development of multidimensional spatial data structures and indexing, translation validation, and proof-carrying code.
2013 Maurice Herlihy: For fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of multi-processor computation.
2012 Ronald Fagin: For fundamental and lasting contributions to the theory of databases.
2011 Ian F. Akyildiz: For pioneering contributions to wireless sensor network architectures and communication protocols.
2009 Jiawei Han: For significant contributions to knowledge discovery and data mining.
2008 Krishna V. Palem: For pioneering contributions to the algorithmic, compilation, and architectural foundations of embedded computing.
2007 Anil K. Jain: For pioneering contributions to theory, technique, and practice of pattern recognition, computer vision, and biometric recognition systems.
2006 Benjamin W. Wah: For fundamental contributions to the theory and applications of nonlinear and resource-constrained optimization.
2005 Krishan K. Sabnani: For seminal contributions to networking protocols and to wireless data networks.
2004 Simon Lam: For outstanding fundamental contributions in network protocols and security services.
2003 Sartaj K. Sahni: For contributions to the theory of NP-hard and NP-complete problems.
2002 Jaishankar M. Menon: For leading contributions on the architecture and design of data storage systems and RAID technology.
2001 Pradeep K. Khosla: For significant contributions to the design of re-configurable real-time software systems, and for significant contributions to undergraduate and graduate education in electrical and computer engineering and robotics.
2000 Raymond Ozzie: For his vision, determination, and programming skill in the development of Lotus Notes, a program that enables groups of people to work collaboratively over computer networks.
1999 Yale N. Patt: For your impact on the high performance microprocessor industry via a combination of important contributions to both engineering and education.
1998 Tilak Agerwala: For outstanding contributions to the development of high performance computers.
1997 Marc Andreessen: For developing a multi-platform browsing tool for the World Wide Web.
1997 Eric Bina: For developing a multi-platform browsing tool for the World Wide Web.
1996 Timothy Berners-Lee: For innovative invention of the World Wide Web, which extends hypertext to distributed information, which has brought about a revolutionary transformation in the use of computers and networks.
1995 Kenneth W. Kennedy: For important contributions to theory and practice of compiler optimization and leadership in the development of software for parallel computation.
1994 Federico Faggin: For the development of the Silicon Gate Process, and the first commercial microprocessor.
1990 Lawrence G. Roberts: For architecting packet switching technology and bringing it into practical use by means of the ARPA network.
1989 Edward B. Eichelberger: For developing the level-sensitive scan technique of testing solid-state logic circuits and for leading, defining, and promoting design for testability concepts.
1989 Thomas W. Williams: For developing the level-sensitive scan technique of testing solid-state logic circuits and for leading, defining, and promoting design for testability concepts.