Research Projects

• Concurrency and Synchronization
  • Montage: a fast, general system for buffered persistent data structures. Code to accompany the 2021 ICPP paper and 2021 DISC paper.
  • Ralloc: a fast, lock-free allocator for persistent memory. Code to accompany the 2020 ISMM paper.
  • Interval-based memory reclamation: fast support for nonblocking concurrent data structures. Code to accompany the 2018 PPoPP paper.
  • Release 7 of the RSTM Transactional Memory System for C++ pthreads programs.
• First-Class Operating System Management of Computational Accelerators
• DPR/TARDIS: Deterministic Parallel Ruby
• InterWeave: A Middleware System for Distributed Shared State
• CASHMERe: Coherent Shared Memory for Next-Generation Networks and Multiprocessors

Courses

• CSC 2/454: Programming Language Design and Implementation (Fall 2025)
• CSC 400: Problem Seminar (Introduction to Graduate Study; Spring 2021)
• CSC 573: Persistent Memory (graduate seminar, Spring 2020)
• CSC 2/458: Parallel and Distributed Systems (Spring 2019)
• CSC 299: Social Implications of Computing (Spring 2018)
• CSC 252: Computer Organization (Spring 2014)
• CSC 162: The Art of Data Structures (Spring 2010)
• CSC 200: Undergraduate Problem Seminar (Introduction to Research) (Spring 2004)
• CSC 173: Computation and Formal Systems (Fall 2001)
• CSC 2/456: Operating Systems (Spring 2000)

Current Graduate Students

• Mingzhe Du, Mingzhe Du's email address

Ph.D. Graduates

• Alan Beadle, “Operating System Services as Protected Libraries,” 2025. Alfred University (tenure-track faculty). Alan Beadle's email address
• Spyridoula Gravani (primary advisor John Criswell), “Efficient and Secure Intra-Address Space Isolation Using Memory Protection Keys,” 2025. VMware (Broadcom). Spyridoula Gravani's email address
• Wentao Cai, “Nonblocking Data Structures on Persistent Memory,” 2022. Nvidia (formerly with Google Seattle). Wentao Cai's email address
• Hensen Wen, “Memory Management and Persistency of Multithreaded Applications,” 2022. StackAdapt, Toronto (formerly with Huawei Canada). Hensen Wen's email address
• Ryan Yates, “Improving Haskell Transactional Memory,” 2019. Groq, Inc. (formerly tenure-track faculty at Houghton College). Ryan Yates's email address
• Mohammad Hedayati-Goudarzi (co-supervised with Kai Shen), Fair OS management of very fast devices (ABD), 2019. Google Seattle. Mohammad Hedayati's email address
• Joseph Izraelevitz, “Concurrency Implications of Nonvolatile Byte-Addressable Memory,” 2017. University of Colorado, Boulder (tenure-track faculty; previous postdocs at the University of California, San Diego, and the IMDEA Software Institute, Madrid, Spain). Joe Izraelevitz's email address
• Lingxiang Xiang, “Compiler Assisted Speculation for Multithreaded Systems,” 2015. Intel Labs, Santa Clara. Lingxiang Xiang's email address
• Li Lu, “Designing for the Simple Case in a Parallel Scripting Language,” 2014. Meta Platforms (formerly with Hortonworks and LaiOffer). lilu9.cn@gmail.com
• Konstantinos Menychtas (co-supervised with Kai Shen), “Fair, Protected OS-level Scheduling for Fast Computational Accelerators,” 2014. Google. Kostas Menychtas's email address
• Luke D'Alessandro, “Preserving the Appeal of Transactional Programming,” 2013. Nvidia Corp. (formerly at Univ. of Washington and Indiana Univ.). Luke Dalessandro's email address
• Michael F. Spear, “Fast Software Transactions,” 2009. Lehigh University (tenure-track faculty). Mike Spear's email address
• Virendra Marathe, “Enhancing the Performance and Usability of Software Transactional Memory,” 2008. Oracle (formerly Sun) Laboratories. Virendra Marathe's email address
• William N. Scherer III, “Synchronization and Concurrency in User-level Software Systems,” 2005. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Houston (formerly research faculty at Rice University). Bill Scherer's email address
• Athanasios Papathanasiou, “Power Efficiency through I/O Access Pattern Reshaping,” 2005. Databricks (formerly with Intel Corp, Teradata Aster, Guavus, and Amazon Web Services). Thanos Papathanasiou's email address
• Grigorios Magklis, “Increasing Energy Efficiency in Adaptive Architectures,” 2005. Barcelona, Spain (formerly with Intel Corp., Arm, Esperanto Tech., and AMD). Grigoris Magklis's email address
• Robert Stets, “Leveraging Symmetric Multiprocessors and System Area Networks in Software Distributed Shared Memory,” 1999. Glean, Inc. (formerly with HP [Compaq] Western Research Lab and Google). Rob Stets's email address
• Galen C. Hunt, “Automatic Distributed Partitioning of Component-Based Applications,” 1998. Microsoft Research. Galen Hunt's email address
• Maged Michael, “Reducing the Overhead of Sharing in Shared-Memory Multiprocessors,” 1997. Category Labs, Boston (formerly at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center and at Meta Platforms). Maged Michael's email address
• Robert Wisniewski (primary advisor Chris Brown), “Systems Support for Real-World AI Applications,” 1996. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (formerly with Silicon Graphics, IBM, Intel, and Samsung). Bob Wisniewski's email address
• Leonidas Kontothanassis, “Architectural and Operating System Support for Inexpensive, Efficient Shared Memory,” 1995. Boston University (formerly with DEC/Compaq/HP Labs, Akamai, Google, and Meta). Leonidas Kontothanassis's email address
• Bill Bolosky, “Software Coherence in Multiprocessor Memory Systems,” 1993. Retired from Microsoft Research. Bill Bolosky's email address
• Ken Yap, “PENGUIN: A Language for Reactive Graphical User Interfaces,” 1990. Retired consultant, Sydney, Australia (formerly with CSIRO and CISRA).
• Peter Dibble, “A Parallel Interleaved File System,” 1989. Retired from Google Pittsburgh (formerly with TimeSys Corp., Microware Systems Corporation, and the Iowa State University). Peter Dibble's email address

in the woods in Maine (Picture courtesy of Erin Scott)

Personal Links

• A “Last Lecture,” in the style of Randy Pausch, delivered in Dec. 2010.
• Personal reflections on the “Florian Jaeger affair,” gleaned from long-term participation in the College’s program of restorative practice.
• The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), representing over 1,000 liberal congregations in North America. Affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person.
  • In July 2011 I was interviewed for public radio's Interfaith Voices on the occasion of the UUA's 50th anniversary.
    Click here for audio (13 min):
    Or check out the slightly longer backstory.
  • In June of 2004 the UUA General Assembly passed a Statement of Immediate Witness on Electronic Voting. I made a brief statement in support of this resolution on the floor of the assembly.
• Rochester's First Universalist Church: a community of reason, love, and faith, since 1846.
• My grandfather, the Rev. Dr. Clinton Lee Scott.
• My older daughter, Erin, Ministerial Intern of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashua, NH.
• The New York State Convention of Universalists: a state-level Unitarian Universalist charitable foundation, which I served as Secretary from 1991 to 1999, as President from 2001 to 2005, and as webmaster since 2004.
• The Union of Concerned Scientists: rigorous scientific analysis, innovative thinking, and citizen advocacy for a healthier environment and a safer world.
• The American Civil Liberties Union: defending the Bill of Rights.
• The American Association of University Professors and its U of R chapter: advancing academic freedom and shared institutional governance.
• The Religious Community for Reproductive Choice: pro-faith, pro-family, pro-choice.
• Amnesty International: working to protect human rights worldwide. See also AI-USA.
• My pages at Wikipedia, Facebook, and LinkedIn.