News Story

Petrov Wins Atanasoff Award

ECE Assistant Professor Peter Petrov was presented with the 2008 John Atanasoff Award for achievement in the development of computer and information technology. Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov personally presented the award Friday, October 3, at an official ceremony.

The Atanasoff Award, named after John Atanasoff, a renowned American scientist and electrical engineer of Bulgarian descent, and inventor of the world's first automatic electronic digital computer.

Each year, one young Bulgarian is recognized with the award for his or her significant contribution to the development of computer and information technology.

Petrov attended the professional high school of electronics in Veliko Turnovo in Bulgaria. In 1998 he graduated with a Master's Degree in mathematics and information technology from the Sofia University "Kliment Ohridski." He later received his Ph.D. in computer engineering from the University of California at San Diego. Since 2004, Petrov has served as assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maryland, focusing on application-specific processors and embedded systems.

Petrov is the author of 84 international scientific research articles. Fourteen have been published in prestigious science magazines and 34 have been presented at international science forums. Petrov is the founder of a multinational group working on application-specific processors and is the editor of IEEE publications in this area.

More information about John Atanasoff is available online.

October 6, 2008