Morris Awarded for Efforts in Operating Systems Research

CSAIL Principal Investigator (PI) and MIT Professor Robert Morris has been honored with the 2010 Mark Weiser Award for over 20 years of innovation in the field of operating systems research. The award, presented by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (ACM SIGOPS) and created in honor of computing visionary Mark Weiser, recognizes a researcher who has demonstrated creativity and innovation in the field. “Robert is internationally known for his many contributions to computer network architectures and computer systems research, including major innovations such as distributed hash tables and wireless mesh networks,” said MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Head Eric Grimson. “The award is very well deserved.” Morris, a member of the Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems group at CSAIL, has focused his efforts on computer network infrastructures that are easy to configure and control. He is well known for his work on such creations as Chord, a distributed hash table, and Roofnet, a wireless mesh network. Additionally, he co-founded Viaweb, a web-based application that allows users to build their own online stores and was widely credited as the first application-based service provider. For more on Morris’ accomplishments, check out here.