Richard DeMillo, professor, founding chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy (SCP) and Charlotte B. and Roger C. Warren Chair of Computing, has been named to the inaugural class of the ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Academy.
DeMillo was among 80 computer scientists worldwide selected for the academy’s inaugural class and was the only Georgia Tech faculty member to be recognized.
“I am honored to be accepted into the inaugural class of the ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Academy,” said DeMillo. “This recognition reflects the work of outstanding students, staff and colleagues over many years. Software engineering research has changed the way society builds and depends on software, and I hope our community will continue to advance the scientific foundations needed to make software more reliable, secure and worthy of the trust it is placed in.”
Founded by ACM SIGSOFT, the Software Engineering Academy is a permanent honorary organization that recognizes members of the software engineering community whose enduring technical contributions, leadership, and service have shaped the field. The Academy recognizes researchers whose collective work and influence have advanced software engineering both as an academic discipline and as a professional practice.
“Rich’s research in software testing is considered one of the most influential contributions to the field of software development,” said Mustaque Ahamad, interim chair of the SCP. “His acceptance into the inaugural ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Academy demonstrates the lasting impact of his research on building more reliable software systems.”
The inaugural class was selected from leaders whose contributions have already been widely recognized in the software engineering community, including ACM Fellows and recipients of the ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award. Starting next year, new academy members will be elected annually through a community nomination process.
DeMillo was founding chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, the first school of its kind at a top research university. He previously served as the John P. Imlay Dean of the College of Computing and led the Georgia Tech Information Security Center.
Throughout his career, DeMillo has held leadership positions in academia, industry and government. He served as Hewlett-Packard’s first chief technology officer, led computer research at Bell Communications Research, headed the National Science Foundation’s computer research division, and led the Software Testing and Evaluation Project in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
His research includes software development, cybersecurity, election security, and the societal impact of digital technology. His 1979 paper “Social Processes and Proofs of Theorems and Programs” is widely considered a foundational work in software engineering and has been recognized as one of the 50 most influential papers in computer science.
In addition to his research, DeMillo has helped shape higher education through the founding of the Georgia Tech Center for 21st Century Universities. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
https://news.gatech.edu/news/2026/07/14/demillo-recognized-lasting-contributions-software-engineering
