Vishkin Named Fellow of National Academy of Inventors

Professor Uzi Vishkin (ECE/UMIACS) has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the organization announced on December 10th, 2024. NAI Fellowship is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors and this year’s class comprises 170 exceptional individuals. The full list of 2024 Fellows can be found here.

Professor Vishkin holds appointments with The University of Maryland Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) and Affiliate Appointments with the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM) and the Department of Computer Science. Prior to joining UMD in 1988, he was a faculty member at Tel Aviv University, where he served as Chair of Computer Science. He earned a B.Sc. and M.Sc in Mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, and a D.Sc. in Computer Science from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

Vishkin’s research in parallel computing and parallel computer architecture is internationally recognized. Along with his research team, he introduced a desktop supercomputer concept in 1997 known as XMT. This concept, known as PRAM-On-Chip, was inspired by the question of how to resolve parallel programming challenges with a unique approach of using the parallel algorithmic theory to guide the design of a computer system, both hardware and software. As early as 2007, his XMT hardware and software prototype computer included 64 parallel processors, allowing for more cost effective programming for software developers due to the simplicity of programming.

Vishkin's 2005 inventions (US patents 7707388, 8145879): Integrating parallel processing accelerators into the CPU (central processing unit, known also as the processor, or the "brain of the computer"), have led computer design to a new era. The best known example is CPUs coupled with iGPUs, manifested in well over a billion devices, such as desktop and laptop computers that have been built since the 2010s.

Vishkin is also a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He has served on the editorial board of both the ACM Transactions on Algorithms and Parallel Processing Letters and IEEE Transactions on Computers. In 2007, he was recognized by the Maryland Daily Record Innovator of the Year.

“A key mission for science and technology academia is to generate new knowledge toward long-term strategic technical goals. Ideally, such contributions become fountainheads for downstream products that industry later develops and implements for society’s benefit," Vishkin said. "I am deeply honored by my election as fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, as its mission is recognizing such contributions."

The National Academy of Inventors is a member organization comprising U.S. and international universities, and governmental and non-profit research institutes, with over 4,000 individual inventor members and Fellows spanning more than 250 institutions. It was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, encourage the disclosure of intellectual property, educate and mentor innovative students, and translate the inventions of its members to benefit society.

Vishkin will be formally inducted into the NAI in June, 2025 at the 14^th NAI Annual Conference to be held in Atlanta, Georgia.

Published December 11, 2024