Onur Mutlu
Turkish computer scientist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Onur Mutlu (born 1978) is a computer scientist and professor of computer architecture at ETH Zurich.[1] He previously held the William D. and Nancy W. Strecker Early Career Professorship at Carnegie Mellon University.[2] His research focuses on computer architecture, memory systems, hardware security, bioinformatics and efficient & high-performance computing systems design. He leads the SAFARI Research Group at ETH Zurich.[3] He was born in Turkey, he took his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and his postgraduate degree and PhD at the University of Texas at Austin.[4]
Mutlu is known for his research on computer architecture, especially memory system design and reliability, including work on the RowHammer phenomenon in dynamic random-access memory (DRAM).[5][6] His group's research on the RowHammer vulnerability was the first to demonstrate that repeatedly accessing certain rows in DRAM can cause bit flips in adjacent rows, revealing a widespread hardware failure mechanism, with implications for system security and reliability.[7] As of March 2026[update] he had an h-index of 139, and 473 cited publications.[8]
Academic biography
Mutlu completed both his PhD and MS at the University of Texas at Austin, and holds BS degrees in computer engineering and psychology from the University of Michigan.[9] In 2006, he started the Computer Architecture Group at Microsoft Research and has held various positions in industry, including Intel Corporation, Google, VMware and AMD. He was a visiting professor at Stanford University during his sabbatical, 2023-2024, and holds adjunct professorships from Bilkent University and Carnegie Mellon University, where he previously held an assistant professorship from 2009-2013 and the Strecker Professorship[10] from 2013-2016, before taking a professorship at ETH Zurich in 2016.
Awards and honors
Mutlu has received numerous honors for his research.[11][12] In 2017, he was named a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery for "contributions to computer architecture research, especially in memory systems".[13] In 2018, he was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for "contributions to computer architecture research and practice" and elected as a member of the Academy of Europe.[14][15] In 2025, he was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), recognized “for foundational and innovative contributions to computer engineering research, education, and practice, especially in computer architecture and memory and storage systems”.[16][17]
Mutlu was awarded the IEEE Computer Society Harry H. Goode Memorial Award in 2025, for "seminal contributions to computer architecture research and practice, especially in memory systems."[18] Mutlu's PhD dissertation was on "Efficient Runahead Execution Processors" and his major first publication on this topic in 2003 received the Test of Time Award of the International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture in 2021.[19][20] He was awarded the IEEE Computer Society Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award in 2020, for "innovative and impactful contributions to computer memory systems."[21] Mutlu also received the Association for Computing Machinery SIGARCH Maurice Wilkes Award in 2019, for "innovative contributions to efficient and secure DRAM systems." [22]
Several other of Mutlu's co-authored scientific papers have been recognized with Test of Time awards at various conferences. The original Row Hammer paper that appeared at the 2014 International Symposium on Computer Architecture was recognized with the Jean-Claude Laprie Award in Dependable Computing in 2024 at the International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks.[23] The AVATAR work that proposed a reliable method of reducing DRAM refresh penalties, published in 2015, was recognized with the International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks Test of Time Award in 2025.[24] His work on "Architecting Phase Change Memory as a Scalable DRAM Alternative"[25] that appeared at the 2009 International Symposium on Computer Architecture was recognized with the Non-Volatile Memories Workshop Persistent Impact Prize in 2022.[26][27]