# ACM recognizes Professors Ian Goldberg and Ken Salem as 2017 Distinguished Members

**Source**: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/computer-science/news/acm-recognizes-professors-ian-goldberg-and-ken-salem-2017-0
**Parent**: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/about/international-national-provincial-and-institutional-awards

Thursday, November 9, 2017

The
Association
for
Computing
Machinery
has
named
David
R.
Cheriton
School
of
Computer
Science
Professors
Ian
Goldberg
and
Ken
Salem
among
[43
new
ACM
Distinguished
Members
globally](https://www.acm.org/media-center/2017/november/distinguished-members-2017)
for
their
outstanding
scientific
contributions
to
computing.

The
2017
Distinguished
Members
are
responsible
for
an
extraordinary
array
of
achievements,
reflecting
many
distinct
areas
of
research
and
practice
in
the
field
of
computing
and
information
technology.

“Computing
technology
is
becoming
an
increasingly
dominant
force
in
our
daily
lives
and
is
transforming
society
at
every
level,”
said
ACM
President
Vicki
L.
Hanson.
“In
naming
a
new
roster
of
Distinguished
Members
each
year,
ACM
underscores
that
the
innovations
that
improve
our
lives
do
not
come
about
by
accident,
but
rather
are
the
result
of
the
hard
work,
inspiration,
and
creativity
of
leading
professionals
in
the
field.”

**Professor Goldberg**,
a
founding
member
of
the
Cryptography,
Security,
and
Privacy
(CrySP)
group,
is
being
recognized
for
his
contributions
to
the
theory
and
practice
of
privacy-enhancing
technologies.

Privacy-enhancing
technologies
promote
freedom,
autonomy,
and
human
rights
for
Internet
users
around
the
world. Among
Goldberg’s
many
successful
projects
is
[Off-the-Record
Messaging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging),
a
cryptographic
protocol
that
provides
encryption
for
instant
messaging
conversations.

**Professor
Salem**,
a
founding
member
of
the
Data
Systems
group,
is
being
recognized
for
his
contributions
to
the
field
of
database
management,
which
is
concerned
with
organizing,
storing,
querying,
and
updating
large
amounts
of
information.

He
is
best
known
for
his
work
on
transactions,
a
key
part
of
the
conceptual
underpinning
of
data-intensive
systems.
Transactions
simplify
development
of
database
applications
for
everything
from
phones
to
enterprise
data
centres
and
the
cloud.

“Congratulations
to
Ian
and
Ken
on
becoming
ACM’s
newest
Distinguished
Members,”
said
Mark
Giesbrecht,
Director
of
the
David
R.
Cheriton
School
of
Computer
Science.
“They
join
a
distinguished
group
of
colleagues
globally
whose
scientific
achievements
have
been
recognized
by
the
ACM,
the
world’s
largest
educational
and
scientific
computing
society.”

The
2017
ACM
Distinguished
Members
work
at
leading
universities,
corporations
and
research
institutions
around
the
world,
including
Australia,
Belgium,
Canada,
France,
Hong
Kong,
Italy,
The
Netherlands,
Portugal,
Qatar,
Singapore,
South
Africa,
South
Korea,
and
the
United
States.

Collectively,
they
make
contributions
in
a
wide
range
of
areas
including
accessibility,
computational
geometry,
cryptography,
computer
security,
computer
science
education,
data
structures,
healthcare
technologies,
human-computer
interaction,
nanoscale
computing,
robotics,
and
software
engineering,
among
many
others.