About Me#
Welcome#
Hi! I’m George K. Thiruvathukal.
You can just call me George, as most people cannot pronounce Thiruvathukal on the first try. If you practice the English words theoretical and topological, you can learn my name easily. For whatever reason, many of my Spanish-speaking friends can pronounce it properly. Perhaps it is related to the sounding of the vowels!
If you prefer to be formal, you may call me Professor or Doctor, though titles are not particularly important to me. Just saying George will suffice.
A few lighthearted suggestions regarding my name:
If you use Doctor, please understand that I do not write prescriptions, except on post-it notes. (Yes, I still use them!)
If you use Mister, especially Mister T., please know there is only one legit Mr. T. And when I last checked, I do not have his hairstyle. At one point, it might have been close.
If you want an additional pronunciation challenge, you might look to the capital city of Kerala—Thiruvananthapuram—in the state of India where my father was born.
Concise Bio#
George K. Thiruvathukal is a full professor and chairperson of the Department of Computer Science at Loyola University Chicago. He is also a visiting computer scientist at Argonne National Laboratory in the Leadership Computing Facility. His research spans high-performance computing, distributed systems, software engineering, programming languages, machine learning, and computer vision. His interdisciplinary interests include digital humanities and music, history of computing, computer ethics, and computing in society. Thiruvathukal received his BS degrees in computer science and physics from Lewis University (with a Mathematics Minor, almost a major) and a PhD in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Apart from his academic roles, he held positions in industry as a software engineer/developer from 1990-1996 at Tellabs and R.R. Donnelley & Sons (Technical Center and Metromail) and was President and CEO of Nimkathana Corporation, funded by the Department of Defense/DARPA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Computing in Science and Engineering and Associate Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Computer magazine. He has authored/co-authored over 200 works including journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, and technical reports. His books have been published by MIT Press, Prentice Hall, and Taylor and Francis (CRC Press).
TL;DR Bio and Commentary#
I am a full professor of computer science and chairperson of the same at Loyola University Chicago, as well as a visiting computer scientist at Argonne National Laboratory in the Leadership Computing Facility.
I hold Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science and Physics from Lewis University in Romeoville, IL, where I also minored—and nearly majored—in Mathematics.
My PhD in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology was completed under the supervision of Thomas W. Christopher, an influential and creative force in my academic life who helped me realize that computer science was only one facet of my broader intellectual identity.
My doctoral work involved creating messaging middleware to support parallel and distributed computation on computing clusters and networks of workstations (primarily in C/C++ and Java). My postdoctoral work continued this trajectory, focusing on Message Passing Interface for Globus and grid computing under the supervision of Ian T. Foster at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago.
My research and teaching interests include high-performance computing and distributed systems, programming languages, software engineering, and machine learning. I am also committed to interdisciplinary computing, with work spanning computational science, data science, and the digital humanities and arts/music.
My recent work focuses on energy-efficient computer vision and empirical software engineering. My research has been funded by government agencies such as NSF, DARPA, NSA, and NEH, and I have received research and education–related gifts from industry leaders including Intel, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
My academic career has been somewhat non-linear. From 1990–1997, I held full-time and consulting positions in industry, culminating as a senior member of technical staff serving as both a software engineer and development manager. This experience helped develop the leadership and organizational skills required of a department chairperson—skills I am grateful to have. Otherwise, I suspect I would have to be hospitalized.
At Loyola, I have served as Undergraduate Program Director (2004) and Graduate Program Director (2004–2006). Beyond my university service, I was Editor-in-Chief (EIC) of IEEE Computing in Science and Engineering (2013–2016), Associate EIC of IEEE Computer (2016–2019), and Chair of the Magazine Operations Committee (2017–2018) after my EIC term. I also served on the IEEE Computer Society Publications Board, overseeing its transactions and magazines.
Currently, I am a member of the IEEE Computer Advisory Board and an editor for the Journal of Open Source Software (Data Science and Artificial Intelligence track).
Beyond the roles of department chair and professor, I returned to school in January 2023 to study jazz piano performance with Lara Driscoll—my first actual piano teacher. I have also been fortunate to learn from other brilliant mentors, including Jack Cassidy, Victor Garcia, Chris Madsen, and Michael Nearpass. I’m not sure my chairperson life will allow me to complete a degree in music and jazz performance, but I am profoundly grateful to this group of musicians for bringing out the best in me and helping me grow as an improviser and composer. Wish me luck.