Keith Marzullo, Dean M. Tullsen and Amin Vahdat, all professors in the department of computer science & engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering, have been named Fellows of The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).

These faculty members are among 46 researchers from the world’s leading universities, corporations and research labs that are being recognized for their contributions to computing. The 2011 ACM Fellows are helping to drive the innovations that will sustain competitiveness in the digital age.

“These women and men, who are some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in computer science and engineering, are changing how the world lives and works,” said ACM President Alain Chesnais.

These three fellowships underscore the strengths of the department of computer science and engineering at the Jacobs School, said Rajesh Gupta, chair of the department. “We are at the forefront of many research areas—and these awards specifically recognize our leadership in networking and computer architecture as well as distributed computer systems."

Marzullo is being recognized for “contributions to distributed systems and service to the computing community.” He is currently serving as director of computer and network systems at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, Va.

Tullsen is being recognized for “contributions to the architecture of high-performance processors.” He co-directs the High Performance Processor Architecture and Compilation Lab, which works to advance the state-of-the-art in processor architecture and compilers. Tullsen, also an IEEE Fellow, holds the distinction of two consecutive awards for authoring the most influential paper with the greatest impact in the previous 15 years.

Vahdat is being recognized for “contributions to data center scalability and management.” Vahdat holds the Science Applications International Corporation chair in the department of computer science and engineering. His research focuses broadly on computer systems, including distributed systems, networks and operating systems. He is currently on leave from the university and is working as a principal engineer at Google, focusing on data-center and wide-area network architecture.

Of the more than 200 computer science and computer engineering departments in North America alone, UC San Diego along with University of Washington leads the list of most fellows elected from a single institution right behind Microsoft Research. “These recognitions point to the rising trajectory of UCSD as the place for exciting research at the frontiers of computer science and engineering”, said Gupta.