Adam Dunkels, PhD, is senior researcher at the networked embedded systems group at SICS. He received his PhD degree from Mälardalen University, Sweden, in February 2007. The title of his thesis is "Programming Memory-constrained Networked Embedded Systems".
Adam Dunkels' research is experimental computer systems research at its best. The selection committee was impressed by the combination of high-quality research results and outstanding industrial impact, showing that it is possible to have both top-tier publications and far-reaching industrial adoption of research results. Adam Dunkels has already received several prestigious awards for his work. At his young age, he is already a leading researcher in his field.
Adam Dunkels has released many of his research results as open source software that has been adopted by hundreds of companies, including Cisco, BMW, NASA, Hewlett Packard, General Electric, and ABB. His software is used in products ranging from air planes and container security systems to network routers and TV production equipment. His software is included in software development kits from leading hardware manufacturers such as Xilinx, Altera, and Analog Devices. Since 2002, Adam Dunkels has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers and one peer-reviewed, invited book chapter. Most of his papers are experimental systems research papers that involve much implementation and experimentation.
His large amount of highly influential work clearly demonstrates Adam Dunkels' outstanding abilities. He was early in the field of sensor networks, when he started working alone in 2000 at SICS, but has in the last few years built a strong, active group that has attracted many young researchers. He has participated, both as a researcher and as a research leader, in many international research projects both with academia and with industry. His open source Contiki project has attracted several researchers and industry players from Europe and the USA that now work within the project (http://www.sics.se/contiki). His first paper, for which he also was the single author, was published at the prestigious ACM MobiSys 2003. Adam Dunkels is the only European who has published three full papers at ACM SenSys, the most prestigious conference in the area of wireless sensor networks.
Adam Dunkels received the 2007 Xerox Chester Carlson science prize, the most prestigious prize for the information sciences in Sweden, for his research and the 2008 ACM EuroSys Roger Needham award for his doctoral thesis. In summary, Adam Dunkels' accomplishments shows that it is possible to both produce high-quality software systems that are widely used in the industry, and publish high-quality research results at the best venues.
2008 Finalists
According to the award rules, each institute is allowed to select up to two finalists from its country. For the 2008 Cor Baayen Award, the ERCIM institutes nominated the following sixteen finalists (listed alphabetically):
- Gianluca Antonini, Switzerland
- Joost Batenburg, The Netherlands
- Andreas Bruhn, Germany
- Augustin Chaintreau, France
- Sébastien Collette, Belgium
- Adam Dunkels, Sweden
- Pierre Genevès, France
- Georgia Koutrika, Greece
- Per Ola Kristensson, Sweden
- Santiago Ontañon, Spain
- György Ottucsák, Hungary
- Kristiaan Pelckmans, Belgium
- Mika Raento, Finland
- Inger Dybdahl Sørby, Norway
- Stefanos Zafeiriou, Greece
- Andreas Zimmermann, Germany.
The winner, Adam Dunkels, was selected by the ERCIM Executive Committee on advice from the ERCIM Advisory Committee (current members listed at http://www.ercim.org/contacts/ac.html).
More information about the Cor Baayen Award:
http://www.ercim.org/activity/cor-baayen.html
