Ramesh Sitaraman

Ramesh Sitaraman's research focuses on all aspects of Internet-scale distributed systems, including algorithms, architectures, performance, energy efficiency, and user behavior. During a stint in industry, he helped create the world's first major content delivery network (CDN). He is best known for pioneering large distributed systems that currently deliver much of the world's web, videos, applications, and online services to billions of users around the world.

Sitaraman is currently in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences (CICS) at the University of Massachusetts  Amherst. He is the founding director of Informatics, an innovative undergraduate degree program that combines computing with other disciplines.

Sitaraman is a Fellow of the ACM and the IEEE, cited for his pioneering work on content delivery networks and Internet-scale distributed systems. He is a recipient of the inaugural ACM SIGCOMM Networking Systems for his work on the Akamai CDN, the world's first major CDN. He is also a recipient of an Excellence in DASH Award (first place) for his work on adaptive bitrate (ABR) algorithms that are now part of the standard MPEG-DASH reference video player used in commercial video streaming. He is a recipient of the College Outstanding Teacher Award (COTA) from the College of Natural Sciences, where he was one among two chosen that year from the college that had 550 faculty in 13 departments and 2 schools. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award (DTA), the highest recognition of teaching on campus, where he was one of four chosen that year from among 1,450 faculty. He is also a recipient of an NSF Research Initiation Award, an NSF CAREER Award, and a Lilly Fellowship.