Vivek Sarkar

Dr. Vivek Sarkar is a Professor of Computer Science at Rice University, where he holds the E.D. Butcher Chair in Engineering. He is renowned for his contributions to parallel, concurrent, and distributed programming, as well as for developing the Habanero Java library and programming system, which are utilized in both teaching and research. Dr. Sarkar earned his B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Before joining Rice in 2007, he spent two decades at IBM Research, where he led projects related to parallel software and was instrumental in releasing the open-source Jikes Research Virtual Machine for Java.At Rice University, Dr. Sarkar has taught various courses on concurrent and parallel programming, including "Concurrent Programming in Java" and "Distributed Programming in Java." He has also played a pivotal role in curriculum development, creating new courses such as Fundamentals of Parallel Programming and leading the Rice Online specialization on Parallel, Concurrent, and Distributed Programming on Coursera. His extensive research work includes programming languages, compiler optimizations, and runtime systems for high-performance computing.