Anastasia Ailamaki, Professor and Lab Director at the Data-Intensive Applications and Systems Laboratory (School of Computer and Communication Sciences), has just added another feather to the cap of EPFL’s research excellence. IEEE has included her as IEEE Fellow in the Class of 2018.
In placing Professor Ailamaki in the prestigious grade, IEEE has recognized her decisive contributions to hardware-conscious database systems and scientific data management. That is along expected lines because Professor Ailamaki has worked extensively on database systems and management for close to two decades. After completing her PhD thesis (University of Wisconsin, 2000) on Architecture-Conscious Database Systems, she has published many papers on scientific data management on modern hardware and devices, and cloud data management. These include studies that have won Best Paper awards from reputed organizations such as IEEE, ACM, USENIX, and VLDB. She was recognized as ACM Fellow in 2015 for her contributions to the design, implementation, and evaluation of modern database systems.
At EPFL, her intensive research program seeks to reinforce the interaction between database systems and modern processor hardware and disks. Besides, she is developing computational database support for scientific applications and delving into fields such as storage device modeling, performance prediction, and internet query caching.
IEEE is one of the largest professional organizations with more than 423,000 members from 160 countries. Out of them, only 0.1% is awarded the fellowship, the highest grade of membership. The selection process is based on peer nomination and backed by excellence in the profession. That underlines Professor Ailamaki’s remarkable achievement.
The fellowship includes a certificate with the name of the Fellow and a brief citation, and a gold sterling silver Fellow lapel pin. These have become coveted items for IEEE members since the inception of the grade in 1912.
Congratulatory messages are pouring in for Professor Ailamaki from many quarters. However, figuring in the elite group is far from an end in itself for Professor Ailamaki. The award has probably opened new doors for greater accomplishments in her chosen field of research.
Suggested readings:
https://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/fellows/2018_elevated_fellows.pdf
https://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/fellows/index.html
http://www.ieee-ras.org/about-ras/latest-news/900-ieee-fellow-class-of-2018-call-for-nominations
https://people.epfl.ch/anastasia.ailamaki
https://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/grade_elevation.html
https://twitter.com/dias_EPFL