Vishkin Named to National Academy of Inventors

Uzi Vishkin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering with an appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, has been named a 2024 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), joining the ranks of some of the nation’s most prestigious and creative academic inventors.

Vishkin and another UMD faculty member—Yang Tao, a professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering—were honored by election to the academy this year. They join 14 other current faculty and staff members from UMD previously elected to the NAI.

“From Yang Tao’s groundbreaking achievements in linking machine vision with AI to Uzi Vishkin’s decades of seminal work unlocking the power of parallel computing, our new NAI fellows epitomize the spirit of problem-solving for the public good,” said UMD President Darryll J. Pines. “We are proud to call these innovative scholars Terps.”

Vishkin’s research in parallel computing and parallel computer architecture is internationally recognized. Along with his research team, he introduced a desktop supercomputer concept in 1997 known as XMT or PRAM-On-Chip; it was inspired by the question of how to resolve parallel programming challenges with a unique approach of using the parallel algorithmic theory to guide the design of a computer system—both hardware and software. By 2007, his XMT hardware and software prototype computer included 64 parallel processors, allowing for more practical and simple programming for software developers.

Two of Vishkin's 2005 patents integrating parallel processing accelerators into the CPU, or "brain” of the computer, led computer design into a new era. The best-known example is CPUs coupled with integrated graphics processing units, present in well over a billion devices including desktop and laptop computers built since the 2010s.

Vishkin, who holds affiliate appointments with the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM) and the Department of Computer Science, is also a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He has served on the editorial board of both the ACM Transactions on Algorithms and Parallel Processing Letters and IEEE Transactions on Computers. In 2007, he was recognized by the Maryland Daily Record as Innovator of the Year. Prior to joining UMD in 1988, he was a faculty member at Tel Aviv University, where he served as chair of computer science.

“A key mission for science and technology academia is to generate new knowledge toward long-term strategic technical goals. Ideally, such contributions, often in the form of inventions and patents documenting them, become fountainheads for downstream products that industry later develops and implements for society’s benefit,” Vishkin said. “I am deeply honored by my election as fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, as its mission is recognizing such contributions.”

Fellowship to NAI, which was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors.

“Through their work, they are making significant contributions to science, creating lasting societal impact, and growing the economy,” said Paul Sanberg, president of the NAI. “NAI fellows as a whole are a driving force of innovation, generating crucial advancements across scientific disciplines and creating tangible impacts as they move their technologies from lab to marketplace.”