The SPEC Achievement Awards

To accomplish its goals, SPEC relies on many volunteers who come from vendors, universities, research labs and other member organizations. While most of our volunteers are paid by their organizations to work with SPEC, many go above and beyond to ensure SPEC remains a premier organization that regularly makes vital new contributions to our industry.

SPEC acknowledges these members through its annual awards program, which includes three awards honoring different types of contribution, as well as the Kaivalya Dixit Distinguished Dissertation Award selected by a special SPEC Research Group (SPEC/RG) committee.

The SPEC Presidential Award

This is SPEC's highest honor, recognizing one person annually who has provided outstanding service and leadership to SPEC over a significant period of time.

This year's SPEC Presidential Award recognizes someone who has served SPEC in a huge number of key positions over the last 10 years, including as a SPEC director. He was a founding member of a SPEC group and the International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE), and he has played an important role on several committees and served as an election officer.

The 2022 Presidential Award

The Kaivalya Dixit Distinguished Dissertation Award

The Kaivalya Dixit Distinguished Dissertation Award, named in memory of SPEC's long-time president Kaivalya Dixit, honors outstanding dissertations within the scope of the SPEC Research Group. The award encompasses a diverse range of entries, including the design of metrics for system evaluation as well as the development of methodologies, techniques and tools for measurement, load testing, profiling, workload characterization, dependability, and efficiency evaluation of computing systems.

The 2021 Kaivalya Dixit Distinguished Dissertation Award Winner

The SPECtacular Award

This award is for individuals who have significantly exceeded expectations in their contributions to SPEC during the course of the last year or over several years. It is typically given to someone who has led development of a new benchmark or tool, or has made extraordinary contributions to a SPEC committee.

The 2022 SPECtacular Award Winners

The SPEC Contributor Award

This award is given to individuals or a team that made significant contributions to bringing a new benchmark, tool, project or event to a successful conclusion.

The 2022 SPEC Contributor Award Winners

Special Recognition

This year SPEC presented Special Recognition to Cathy Sandifer, SPEC's webmaster, who has spent more than 20 years dedicating herself to making SPEC a better organization. Her accomplishments have been many, from developing the SPEC website backend and internal wiki, to single handedly saving servers during a flood, to moving the organization from DVD distribution of benchmarks to a full e-commerce model. Even more important, Cathy has offered excellent and unwavering support and service to SPEC's customers, members and staff – all day, every day, year after year. This profound commitment and dedication has improved the experience of everyone associated with SPEC.