The IEEE Computer Society has announced the recipients of the 2025 Computer Pioneer Award which is presented annually to outstanding individuals whose main contribution to the concepts and development of the computer field was made at least fifteen years earlier.

The IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award dates from 1981 and was established to recognize and honor the vision of those people whose efforts resulted in the creation or expansion and continued vitality of the computer industry. The award was renamed in 2018 with the rather bulky title of:

IEEE CS Computer Pioneer Award in Honor of the Women of ENIAC

For 2025 Gurindar (Guri) Sohi and Moshe Y. Vardi are being honored for their contributions to high-end microprocessors and automated reasoning in computer systems seen by the IEEE as developments that have had lasting impacts on today’s computing environment.

The citation in respect of Gurindar (Guri) Sohi reads:

For contributions to the microarchitecture of instruction-level parallel processors and his impact on the computer architecture community.

Sohi is currently Vilas Research Professor, John P. Morgridge Professor, and E. David Cronon Professor of Computer Sciences, Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Results from his research in the design of high-performance microprocessors and computer systems over the years can be found in almost every high-end microprocessor in the market today. Having joined the faculty of the Computer Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985 he taught classes ranging from  introductory freshmen to advanced graduate courses and supervised 22 PhD students.

He is a Fellow of both the ACM and the IEEE and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2009 and to the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences in 2018. His previous awards are  1999 ACM SIGARCH Maurice Wilkes award and the 2011 ACM/IEEE Eckert-Mauchly. 

The citation in respect of Moshe Y. Vardi reads: 

For contributions to the development of logic as a unifying foundational framework and a tool for modeling computational systems.

Vardi is University Professor and the George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University, teaching logic and research ethics across the curriculum. He is the author and co-author of over 800 papers, as well as two books: “Reasoning about Knowledge” and “Finite Model Theory and Its Applications. His research interests focus on automated reasoning, a branch of Artificial Intelligence with broad applications in computer science, including database theory, computational-complexity theory, multi-agent systems, computer-aided verification and constraint solving.

His contributions have already been recognized on multiple occasions, one of which, the 2020 ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award, we reported on at the time. He is the co-recipient of three IBM Outstanding Innovation Awards, the ACM SIGACT Goedel Prize, the ACM Kanellakis Award, the ACM SIGMOD Codd Award, the Blaise Pascal Medal, and the IEEE Computer Society Goode Award. He is a Guggeheim Fellow, as well as Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the IEEE and the ACM.

In his comment, Hironori Washizaki, 2025 IEEE Computer Society President said of the recipients:

“Each has uniquely provided a lasting impact that both pushes advancements in computing and benefits society at large. Their work exemplifies excellence in computer science and engineering, and we are thrilled to honor their important contributions.”

More Information

IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award

Award Recipient - Gurindar (Guri) Sohi

Award Recipient - Moshe Y. Vardi

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