Royal Society Fellowship win for Leeds scientist tackling the future of fast, efficient software
A University of Leeds academic has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to help software keep pace with modern demands.
Professor Zheng Wang, from the School of Computer Science, has been awarded a Royal Society Industry Fellowship (RSIF) to develop a powerful new toolchain to improve parallel software. The highly competitive four-year fellowship begins this October and is worth over £194,000 in support.
Working in partnership with Codeplay Software, a leading UK software tools company, Professor Wang will create a pattern-aware development toolchain that enables programmers to build, optimise, and maintain high-performance parallel software more easily. The project addresses the need for software that can keep pace with modern hardware capabilities, which is a growing challenge in computing.
Professor Wang said he was drawn to the RSIF because it’s designed for people like him: researchers who want to explore the opportunities that industry offers without leaving academia.
“I’ve always seen fundamental and applied research as two sides of the same coin, and I really value how the Industry Fellowship helps bring these worlds together,” he said.
“I have always been passionate about turning research into practical systems that work in real environments and solve real problems. What excites me most is seeing ideas tested outside the lab, where they can make a real difference.
“The RSIF gives me a chance to work closely with a leading UK company, apply my research in an industry setting, and learn from software developers using these tools every day.”
His collaboration will also focus on creating open-source tools compatible with the OneAPI open standard, offering benefits that extend beyond the lab. If successful, the project could enable software innovation well into the 2030s.
Professor Wang added: “I’m really excited to work with industry experts and turn my research into practical tools that help software developers around the world write and optimise software for modern computing hardware. It’s a great opportunity to make a real impact and learn from real-world challenges.”
