Alvin R. Lebeck Professor Emeritus of Computer Science

Bio

Alvin R. Lebeck is a Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Duke University. Lebeck's research interests span atoms to applications, with a foundation centered in computer architecture and systems. His work explored hardware acceleration of probabilistic algorithms, the design of systems at the confluence of datacenters and high-performance computing, including distributed storage systems, and high performance networking. He also investigated the architectural implications of DNA self-assembly as a fabrication method for future systems which provided the foundation for the formation of Phitonex to develop and commercialize novel fluorescent labels for biomarker detection. In the area of memory systems, Lebeck led efforts in improving cache hierarchy performance, new cache coherence and consistency protocols, tolerating memory latency. He co-led the effort to develop the first technique for an operating system to manage energy/power as a first-class resource and to develop main memory power management techniques.

Lebeck received the B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (1989), and the M.S. (1991) and Ph.D. (1995) in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin---Madison. Lebeck is co-author on over 100 publications, received the best paper award at the 31st IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture and the 6th International Workshop on Network on Chip Architectures, and has had two papers in the IEEE Top Picks in Computer Architecture, and one Honorable mention. He is the recipient of a 1997 NSF CAREER Award, has received funding from NSF, DARPA, AFRL, Intel, Compaq, Microsoft, IBM, SRC, is a member of ACM, an IEEE Fellow, served as technical program chair for ASPLOS 2019, was the founding editor for Computer Architecture Today-the ACM SIGARCH Blog, and received the 2020 ACM SIGARCH Alan D. Berenbaum Distinguished Service Award. He co-founded Phitonex in 2017 serving as Chairman until the end of 2020 when it was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific.

An informal interview about the Phitonex Journey is here

Awards and Honors

Alan D. Berenbaum Distinguished Service Award. ACM SIGARCH. 2020 (My acceptance speech)
Recognition of Service Award. Association of Computing Machinery. 2019
Fellow. IEEE. 2017
Honorable Mention, IEEE MICRO Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences . IEEE MICRO. 2017
Best Paper. 6th International Workshop on Network on Chip Architectures. DEC 2013
IEEE MICRO Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences . IEEE. 2010
IEEE MICRO Top Picks from Computer Architecture Conferences . IEEE MICRO. 2009
Best Paper. 31st Annual ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Microarchitecture. NOV 1998
NSF CAREER. National Science Foundation. 1997
Outstanding Graduate Student Researcher. Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin at Madison. 1995

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style." – Maya Angelou