Professor Justin Zobel honoured for transformative contributions to computer science
Professor Justin Zobel, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Graduate and International Research), has been recognised as an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow for his contributions to data structures and algorithms for efficient search and storage.
Professor Zobel is one of 55 Fellows across the globe named for transformative contributions to computing science and technology. All the 2024 inductees are longstanding ACM Members whose accomplishments were selected by their peers for making possible the computing technologies we use every day.
Professor Zobel is the first recipient at the University of Melbourne, and thirteenth in Australia, in the 32 years since the Fellowship began.
“Throughout my career I’ve sought to address foundational questions. Such research can easily fail but sometimes it does succeed, and it is these successes that the Fellowship recognises,” Professor Zobel said.
“I’m thrilled by the recognition, which I believe reflects the importance of pursuing research with potentially transformative outcomes and of not being confined to narrow goals.”
Professor Zobel’s awarded research addressed the need for search to be as resource efficient as possible. As a significant component of global energy use, every reduction in computational costs for search is valuable.
He is currently investigating robust measurement in computer science, particularly in the domain of search. These methods are needed to shape how emerging AI technologies develop and are used, and to help ensure they are reliable.