AUSTIN, Texas— Dr. Doug Burger, professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, has received the 2006 Maurice Wilkes Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The Maurice Wilkes Award, named after one of the 20th century's major computer pioneers, is an annual, international award that recognizes outstanding contributions to computer design made by an individual whose computer-related career started fewer than 20 years ago. Burger received the award for his contributions to spatially distributed processor and memory system architectures. At 37 years old, Burger is one of the youngest recipients of the award. The 2003 and 2005 winners of the Maurice Wilkes Award were the Chief Technical Officers of AMD and Cray.

Burger's research focuses on high-performance, next-generation microprocessor design. With colleagues Dr. Stephen Keckler and Dr. Kathryn McKinley, Burger co-leads the TRIPS project, which is building an advanced system prototype of a new class of ultra-powerful microprocessors. The project has received over $15 million in extramural funding and has earned multiple awards for its novelty.