Schwan, who joined the Georgia Tech computer science faculty in 1988, directs the Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems (CERCS) in the College of Computing. Now the College's sixth Regents' Professor, he is a member of the School of Computer Science's systems research group, working in high performance, real-time and ubiquitous applications.

"Regents' Professorships are granted by the Board of Regents to outstanding tenured, full professors, based on excellence in research and contributions to their profession and to Georgia Tech," Institute President Bud Peterson wrote to Schwan in announcing the appointment. "This honor is evidence of the outstanding reputation you have developed among your peers not only at Georgia Tech but throughout the research community. Your innovative scholarship and noteworthy achievements have helped Georgia Tech to become one of the premier research universities in the world."

Schwan earned both his master's and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He deferred much of the credit for his appointment to his fellow CERCS researchers.

"A big part of receiving this honor," Schwan said, "is due to my excellent colleagues and collaborators who, by helping to create CERCS and thereby pooling their talents and activities, have been able to attain a degree of national prominence and impact that would otherwise not have been possible."

CERCS has established itself in three major research areas: cloud computing, high performance computing and multicore systems. The center works in collaboration with major industry partners such as Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel and NVidia.