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Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award 2017: Scott Shenker, University of California at Berkeley

458 views · Published 11 October 2018 · 1:15 · Indexed 6 October 2026

Channel: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) · 2018 · Science & Technology

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The Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award is presented to Scott Shenker for pioneering contributions to fair queueing in packet-switching networks, which had a major impact on modern practice in computer communication.

Shenker’s work was fundamental to helping the internet grow from a tool used by a small community of researchers, to a staple of daily life that is used by billions of people. Since the internet 
was introduced, demand has grown for the ability of computer networks to transmit voice and data simultaneously.  Shenker was the first to develop the first practical fair queueing  algorithm for 
packet-switching networks, which provided equitable access to transmission bandwidth for different grades of service quality. Many of the commercial routers that make up the internet today use Shenker’s algorithms.

Shenker also developed  a mathematical tool for rigorous network research, and introduced ideas for implementing “guaranteed” real-time services such as voice, video streaming and multicasts. 
Recently, Shenker has been involved in positing how to redesign the internet from the ground up. Software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined internet architecture (SDIA) are key ideas he developed as part of these inquiries. Researchers consider SDN and SDIA invaluable concepts for mapping out how to most effectively maintain and expand the internet in the coming years.

The award is named for Paris Christos Kanellakis (1953-1995), who, as a distinguished computer science theoretician and esteemed faculty member of Brown University, focused much of his work in the area of theoretical computer science, particularly the principles of database systems and logic. His contributions were exceptional both in the breadth of his interests and his ability to carve out research programs in which his keen mathematical insight could be put at the service of practical issues.

The  Paris  Kanellakis  Theory  and  Practice  Award  honors  specific  theoretical accomplishments that have had a significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of computing. This award is accompanied by a prize of $10,000 and is endowed by contributions from the Kanellakis family, and financial support by ACM’s SIGACT, SIGDA, SIGMOD, SIGPLAN, the ACM SIG Project Fund, and individual contributions.

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