UC San Diego Computer and Data Scientists Named to ACM’s Latest Class of Fellows

Bafna’s research focuses on cancer genomics and population genetics. He has made important contributions in the analysis of breakage fusion bridge cycles, extrachromosomal DNA, identifying the genetic signals of adaptation, analyzing experimental evolution, and proteogenomics. He has co-founded two companies: Abterra, LLC, which focuses on services and products relating to proteogenomic data, and Boundless Bio, Inc., which is targeting extrachromosomal DNA in cancer. In 2019, he was selected as a fellow of the International Society of Computational Biology. 

Belkin’s research interests are in theory and applications of machine learning and data analysis. Some of his well-known work includes widely used Laplacian Eigenmaps, Graph Regularization and Manifold Regularization algorithms, which brought ideas from classical differential geometry and spectral analysis to data science.

Belkin's recent work has been concerned with understanding mathematical and statistical phenomena observed in deep learning. One of his key recent findings is the “double descent” risk curve that extends the textbook U-shaped bias-variance trade-off curve beyond the point of interpolation.

“ACM is proud to include nearly 110,000 computing professionals in our ranks and ACM Fellows represent just 1% of our entire global membership,” said ACM President Yannis Ioannidis.

The 2023 Fellows represent universities, corporations, and research centers in Canada, China, Germany, India, Israel, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The contributions of the 2023 Fellows run the gamut of the computing field―including algorithm design, computer graphics, cybersecurity, energy-efficient computing, mobile computing, software analytics, and web search, to name a few, according to the ACM.