Faculty Achievements

Celebrating Excellence in Research, Innovation, and Education

CICS faculty are at the forefront of pioneering research, innovative teaching, and groundbreaking discoveries. Their achievements are a testament to their dedication, expertise, and influence within the global academic and professional communities. From prestigious lifetime achievement awards to university honors and highly cited publications, our faculty's work continues to shape the future of information and computer sciences. Additionally, their commitment to education is reflected in the numerous teaching awards they have received, underscoring their impact on the next generation of leaders and innovators.

Explore the extraordinary accomplishments of our faculty, whose contributions are driving the advancements in technology and knowledge that define the field.

Fellows

• 20 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): W. Richards Adrion, James Allan, Emery Berger, Lori Clarke, W. Bruce Croft, Deepak Ganesan, Robert Graham, Laura Haas, Peter Haas, Neil Immerman, James Kurose, Brian Levine, Andrew McCallum, Eliot Moss, Leon Osterweil, Arnold Rosenberg, Prashant Shenoy, Ramesh Sitaraman, Donald Towsley, Shlomo Zilberstein
• 12 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): Andrew Barto, Yuriy Brun, Lori Clarke, W. Bruce Croft, James Kurose, Victor Lesser, Eliot Moss, Arnold Rosenberg, Prashant Shenoy, Ramesh Sitaraman, Hava Siegelmann, Donald Towsley
• 8 American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI): Wendy Lehnert, Victor Lesser, Sridhar Mahadevan, Andrew McCallum, Edward Riseman, Edwina Rissland, Beverly Woolf, Shlomo Zilberstein
• 5 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): W. Richards Adrion, Andrew Barto, James Kurose, Prashant Shenoy, Ramesh Sitaraman, Don Towsley
• 2 Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association: Prashant Shenoy, Ramesh Sitaraman
• 2 National Academy of Engineering (NAE): Laura Haas, James Kurose 
• 1 American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Laura Haas 
• 1 INFORMS Fellow: Peter Haas
• 1 International Neural Network Society (INNS): Hava Siegelmann

Lifetime Research Achievement Awards

• 2024 National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Pioneer in Tech Award: Francine Berman
• 2023 Network Science Society Euler Award: Don Towsley
• 2023 IEEE Communications Society William R. Bennett Prize: Ramesh Sitaraman
• 2021 CRA Distinguished Service Award: Jim Kurose 
• 2021 ACM SIGIR Academy Inductee: James Allan
• 2020 ACM SIGIR Academy Inductee: W. Bruce Croft 
• 2019 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award: Laura Haas 
• 2017 IJCAI Award for Research Excellence: Andrew Barto
• 2016 ACM SIGCOMM Award, presented by ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communications: Jim Kurose 
• 2016 INNS Donald O. Hebb Award: Hava Siegelmann
• 2015 ACM SIGMOD Edgar Codd Award: Laura Haas
• 2014 IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award: W. Bruce Croft
• 2016 INNS Donald O. Hebb Award: Andrew Barto
• 2013 UKeIG Tony Kent Strix Award, presented by the UKeIG, in association with the International Society for Knowledge Organisation UK and the British Computer Society Information Retrieval Specialist Group: W. Bruce Croft
• 2013 IEEE INFOCOM Achievement Award: Jim Kurose
• 2012 ACM Sigsoft Outstanding Research Award for Software Engineering: Lori Clarke
• 2011 IEEE INFOCOM Achievement Award: Donald Towsley
• 2009 IJCAI Award for Research Excellence: Victor Lesser
• 2008 ACM SIGCOMM Award, presented by ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communications: Donald Towsley
• 2008 CRA Distinguished Service Award: W. Richards Adrion
• 2007 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award: Donald Towsley
• 2007 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Measurement and Evaluation (SIGMETRICS) Achievement Award: Donald Towsley
• 2004 IEEE Neural Networks Society Neural Networks Pioneer Award for reinforcement learning: Andrew Barto
• 2003 Gerard Salton Award from the ACM Special Interest Group in Information Retrieval: W. Bruce Croft
• 2003 ACM Sigsoft Outstanding Research Award for Software Engineering: Lee Osterweil
• 1995 Gödel Prize for Research in Theoretical Computer Science: Neil Immerman

Major Junior Faculty Grants and Fellowships

• 39 NSF CAREER grants to Assistant or Associate Professors: Micah Adler, Emery Berger, Oliver Brock, Yuriy Brun, Mark Corner, Yanlei Diao, Justin Domke, Kevin Fu, Deepak Ganesan, Phillipa Gill, Hui Guan, Mohammad Hajiesmaili, Amir Houmansadr, Mohit Iyyer, Andrew Lan, Hung Le, Erik Learned-Miller, Brian Levine, Sridhar Mahadevan, Subhransu Maji, Benjamin Marlin, Arya Mazumdar, Andrew McGregor, Alexandra Meliou, Gerome Miklau, Cameron Musco, Brendan O'Connor, Negin Rahimi, Barna Saha, Daniel Sheldon, Prashant Shenoy, Ramesh Sitaraman, Yannis Smaragdakis, Arun Venkataramani, Rui Wang, Jie Xiong, Cindy Xiong Bearfield, Hamed Zamani, and Shlomo Zilberstein
• 2 Google Research Fellows: Hung Le, Cameron Musco, Negin Rahimi
• 1 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow: Narges Mahyar
• 1 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers Award: Barna Saha 
• 1 Sloan Foundation Fellow: Barna Saha

Peer Review

• 50 editorial board positions
• Top 250 most cited computer science authors (ISI): W. Bruce Croft, Neil Immerman, Arnold Rosenberg, Don Towsley
• Top 250 most cited computer science authors (CiteSeer): Andrew Barto, Jim Kurose, Andrew McCallum, Don Towsley

University and College Awards

• 15 Lilly Teaching Fellows: James Allan, David Mix Barrington, Emery Berger, Yuriy Brun, Mark Corner, Deepak Ganesan, Jim Kurose, Sunghoon Ivan Lee, Brian Levine, Andrew McCallum, Andrew McGregor, Siobhan Meï, Alexandra Meliou, Gerome Miklau, J. Eliot B. Moss, Prashant Shenoy, Ramesh Sitaraman
• 13 College Outstanding Teacher Awards: Yuriy Brun, Jaime Dávila, Roderic Grupen, David Jensen (2011, 2022), Jim Kurose, Brian Levine, Victor Lesser, Marc Liberatore, Andrew McGregor, Timothy Richards, Arnold Rosenberg, Daniel Sheldon, Ramesh Sitaraman, Philip Thomas, Michelle Trim
• 11 Public Interest Technology (PIT) Faculty Fellows: Ivon Arroyo, Cindy Xiong Bearfield, Ravi Karkar, Narges Mahyar, Siobhan Meï, Matthew Rattigan, Ali Sarvghad, Neena Thota, Michelle Trim, Beverly Woolf, Yair Zick
• 10 Samuel Conti Research Fellows: Michael Arbib, Lori Clarke, Paul Cohen, W. Bruce Croft, Jim Kurose, Andrew McCallum, Edward Riseman, Arnold Rosenberg, Prashant Shenoy, Donald Towsley
• 9 University Distinguished Professors: W. Bruce Croft, Jim Kurose, Victor Lesser, Brian Levine, Andrew McCallum, Arnold Rosenberg, Ramesh Sitaraman, Prashant Shenoy, Don Towsley
• 8 UMass Amherst Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity: Lori Clarke, W. Bruce Croft, Jim Kurose, Victor Lesser, Andrew McCallum, Eliot Moss, Leon Osterweil, Don Towsley
• 8 UMass Amherst Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series Lecturers/Chancellor’s Medal Recipients: Arbib, Clarke, Grupen, Kurose, Lehnert, Riseman, Towsley, Zilberstein
• 6 College of Natural Science and Mathematics/College of Natural Sciences Outstanding Faculty Research Award: W. Bruce Croft, Victor Lesser, Brian Levine, Andrew McCallum, Arnold Rosenberg, Don Towsley
• 6 UMass STRIDE Faculty Fellows: Ivon Arroyo, Ravi Karkar, Matthew Rattigan (2023, 2024), Cheryl Swanier, Jay Taneja (2023, 2024), Neena Thota
• 5 College of Natural Sciences Outstanding Faculty Service Awards: Rick Adrion, W. Bruce Croft, Lori Clarke, Jim Kurose, Robert Moll
• 4 Sloan Fellows: Hui Guan, Donghyun Kim, Neena Thota, Yair Zick
• 3 UMass Amherst Distinguished Teaching Award: Ramesh Sitaraman, Charles Weems, William Verts
• 2 Teaching for Inclusiveness, Diversity, and Equity (TIDE) Ambassadors: Neena Thota, Michelle Trim 
• 2 NSF Advance Fellows: Sunghoon Ivan Lee, Narges Mahyar
• 1 College of Natural Sciences Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award: James Allan
• 1 Student Centered Teaching and Learning (SCTL) Fellow: Neena Thota
• 1 UMass Amherst Distinguished Academic Outreach Research Award: Rick Adrion
• 1 UMass Amherst Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award: Don Towsley
• 1 UMass President's Award for Public Service: Rick Adrion