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John Gustafson (scientist)
Encyclopedia
Gustafson's law
Gustafson's Law is a law in computer science which says that problems with large, repetitive data sets can be efficiently parallelized. Gustafson's Law contradicts Amdahl's law, which describes a limit on the speed-up that parallelization can provide. Gustafson's law was first described by John...
, introducing the first commercial computer cluster, measuring with QUIPS, leading the reconstruction of the Atanasoff–Berry Computer, and several awards for computer speedup. Presently the Director of Intel Labs-SC, he previously held the position of CEO of Massively Parallel Technologies, Inc. and CTO at ClearSpeed
ClearSpeed
ClearSpeed Technology Ltd is a semiconductor company, formed in 2002 to develop enhanced SIMD processors for use in high-performance computing and embedded systems. Based in Bristol, UK, the company has been selling its processors since 2005...
Technology. Dr. Gustafson holds applied mathematics degrees from the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
and Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
.
Childhood and education
Gustafson was raised in Des Moines, IowaDes Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
. After completing a degree in Applied Mathematics at California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
in 1977 he moved to Ames, Iowa
Ames, Iowa
Ames is a city located in the central part of the U.S. state of Iowa in Story County, and approximately north of Des Moines. The U.S. Census Bureau designates that Ames, Iowa metropolitan statistical area as encompassing all of Story County, and which, when combined with the Boone, Iowa...
and completed his M.S. (1981) and Ph.D. (1982) at Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
.
His mother was an electronics technician at Collins Radio and his father was a chemical engineer turned MD, both as a result of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. His parents encouraged his scientific explorations at a young age. Assembling radio transmitters, designing and executing chemistry experiments, and making holograms are some of his favorite childhood explorations adding up to over 1000 lab hours before college.
Awards
- 2007 IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Award
- 2006 International Atanasoff Award (inaugural)
- 2000 Iowa State University Inventor of the Year Award
- 1998 Distinguished Visiting Professor, New Mexico State University
- 1997 PDPTA Outstanding Achievement Award
- 1995 R&D 100 Award
- 1991 R&D 100 Award
- 1990 New Mexico Inventor of the Year Award
- 1989 R&D 100 Award
- 1988 Parallel computing breakthrough read into U.S. Congressional Record
- 1988 Gordon Bell PrizeGordon Bell PrizeThe Gordon Bell Prizes are a set of awards awarded by the Association for Computing Machinery in conjunction with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers each year at the Supercomputing Conference to recognize outstanding achievement in high-performance computing applications...
(inaugural) (Greatest annual contribution to the science of parallel processing) - 1988 Karp ChallengeGordon Bell PrizeThe Gordon Bell Prizes are a set of awards awarded by the Association for Computing Machinery in conjunction with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers each year at the Supercomputing Conference to recognize outstanding achievement in high-performance computing applications...
(Unique award: First demonstration of parallel speedup of over 200 times) - 1977 Richter Fellowship
- 1977 Graduation with Honors, Election to Gnome Club (Caltech honor society)
- 1974 Eric Temple Bell Award (Caltech; for "Outstanding Original Research in Mathematics")
- 1973 Drake Physics Prize