ACM named Ricardo Baeza-Yates as the recipient of the 2025 ACM Luiz André Barroso Award, recognizing his pioneering contributions to algorithms and information retrieval as well as his leadership in fostering a vibrant transnational research community across Latin America.
The ACM Luiz André Barroso Award recognizes researchers from historically underrepresented communities who have made fundamental contributions to computer science. The award is named after Luiz André Barroso, a Brazilian computer engineer who pioneered the design of the modern data center. Barroso, who grew up in a diverse community, was a strong supporter of equal opportunity for everyone.
Technical Contributions
Baeza-Yates is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost researchers in information retrieval, celebrated especially for pioneering innovative data structures that have shaped the field. His work has produced influential algorithms for string searching and fuzzy matching, including the well-known Shift-Or algorithm. Over the course of a prolific career, Baeza-Yates has authored more than 500 highly cited papers and co-written several books. His textbook, Modern Information Retrieval (co-authored with Berthier Ribeiro-Neto), remains the most widely used and authoritative reference in the discipline.
Building the Latin American Computing Community
Baeza-Yates has played a pivotal role in strengthening the Latin American computing community. At the University of Chile, he was the founding director of the Center for Web Research which became a hub for attracting top talent and supporting young researchers. The efforts of Baeza-Yates and others gradually led to a vibrant technology sector in Chile—reflected in today’s moniker of “Chilecon Valley.”
Later, as President of the Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios en Informática (CLEI), he led the association of computing science departments in Latin America. He also was one of the coordinators of the Ibero-American cooperation program in science and technology for development (CYTED). He also co-founded two of Latin America’s most influential research conferences—String Processing and Information Retrieval Symposium (SPIRE), focused on string processing (now an international meeting), and the Alberto Mendelzon Workshop (AMW), dedicated to databases and web research.
During this decade, he has focused on responsible AI, being one of the leading authors of ACM’s Principles for Responsible Algorithmic Systems published in October 2022. He is currently a member of several technology policy committees including ACM, IEEE, OECD, and WEF.
A respected mentor, Baeza-ates has advised 34 PhD students, many from Latin America, with 50% of them female, 53% from Latin America, and 68% from developing countries. Young people have also been excited and inspired by the South American Programming Contest which he helped to bootstrap. Launched in 1996, the Contest held its 30th competition in 2025.
