Richard Rashid

Richard Farris Rashid is an American computer scientist and the founder of Microsoft Research, which he created in 1991. Between 1991 and 2013, as its chief research officer and director, he oversaw the worldwide operations for Microsoft Research which grew to encompass more than 850 researchers and a dozen labs around the world. Rashid graduated from Stanford University in 1974 with degrees in mathematics and comparative literature. He then received a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Rochester, finishing in 1980. While at Rochester, he and Gene Ball wrote what is probably one of the earliest networked multiplayer computer games, Alto Trek, for Xerox Alto computers.

Before joining Microsoft in 1991, Rashid had been the developer of the Mach kernel during his tenure as a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. The Mach multiprocessor operating system kernel developed by Rashid and Avie Tevanian has had a lasting influence in the design of modern operating systems, including the design of Windows NT, and remains at the core of several operating systems such as NeXTSTEP, GNU Hurd, macOS, iOS, OSF/1, and Tru64 UNIX.

Rashid has authored a number of patents in areas such as data compression, networking, and operating systems, and was a major developer of Microsoft's interactive TV system.

He was promoted to vice president in 1994. In 2000, he became senior vice president of Microsoft. He has 5 children.

While a faculty member at CMU, he also performed research and published numerous papers and articles on topics such as networking, operating systems, artificial intelligence, and programming languages for distributed computing applications.

Awards and honors In 2003, he was elected to member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2008, he received the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award. In 2008, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences In 2008, he received the SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award In 2009, he received the Microsoft Technical Recognition Award Member of National Science Foundation Computer Directorate Advisory Committee In 2014, he received the ACM Software System Award.