Professor Vladimir Getov, Professor of Distributed and High-Performance Computing at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, was awarded the State Order ‘Saints Cyril and Methodius’ by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria.
The award was presented to Professor Getov by the Bulgarian Ambassador in London H.E. Marin Raykov at a reception in the Embassy on 2 March 2020.
Professor Getov, who currently lectures on the Smart Computer Systems BEng Honours course, has been at the University of Westminster for over 25 years where he was awarded the titles Reader in 1999 and Professor in 2001. During this period, he has been developing strong professional collaboration with partner institutions in Bulgaria and other countries such as the United States, China, Japan, France, and Italy.
The State Order ‘Saints Cyril and Methodius’ is the second ranked Bulgarian order and is awarded for merit in the fields of art, science, education and culture. The text on the Presidential Decree says: "... for outstanding international achievements in the field of Computer Science and for the developing cooperation in the academic field between the Republic of Bulgaria and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.
Professor Getov is recognised by his peers for his commitment to service, leadership skills, and dedication to research and related professional activities. An active IEEE Computer Society (CS) volunteer since the mid-1990s, he was a member of the IEEE CS Board of Governors (2016–2018), and secretary of the CS Publications Board.
Professor Getov has been the Computer Society’s Area Editor for high-performance computing since 2008 and has served as general and program chair of several IEEE conferences. He is a Committee Member of the Supercomputing Conference and Standing Committee Member for IEEE COMPSAC, as well as Executive Committee Member of the IEEE CS Technical Consortium on High-Performance Computing, while also contributing as an active member of the IEEE International Roadmap for Devices and Systems.
Professor Getov has received several prestigious awards, such as the IEEE Golden Core Award (2016), Honorary Professor (Technical University, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2012), IBM Faculty Award (2010), Bulgarian Pythagoras Science Award (2009) and Outstanding Executive Committee Contribution Award (EU CoreGRID, 2008). He is a Senior Member of IEEE and ACM, a BCS Fellow, and was Governor of ICCC (2004–2007).
Professor Getov said about the achievement: "I feel highly privileged and deeply honoured. It was rather unexpected, and I am very grateful for this recognition which is the highest award I have received. It would not have been possible without the contribution and help of many colleagues and friends and I sincerely thank all of them."
Learn more about the Smart Computer Systems BEng Honours course.
