Tim Harris

I work at Microsoft, focused on performance optimization for inference workloads including the Azure OpenAI Service and the use of the ONNX runtime system for large language models. More generally, my research interests span the stack encompassing distributed systems, language runtime systems, and operating systems, and with a particular emphasis on scalability and performance.

I am also an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge Computer Lab where I currently teach the distributed systems course and part of multicore semantics and programming.

Prior to Microsoft I was with AWS and worked on large-scale storage performance and data analytics with Amazon S3—for more on that, see talks from re:Invent, and the S3 Select feature. Further back, I led the Oracle Labs group in Cambridge, UK working on runtime systems for in-memory graph analytics, and the confluence of work on “big data” and ideas from high-performance computing. Before joining Oracle I had a previous stint with Microsoft (2004–2012), working on transactional memory and on the Barrelfish research operating system. I was on the faculty of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory (2000–2004) where I led the department's research on concurrent data structures and contributed to the Xen virtual machine monitor project.

Selected work
All publications by year
Community service
I served as joint PC chair for VEE 2017 (with Galen Hunt), as PC chair for PPoPP 2016, and joint PC-chair for EuroSys 2015 (with Maurice Herlihy). I have also served as chair of the ASPLOS steering committee (2013–2014), and as vice-chair of EuroSys, the SIGOPS European Chapter (2009–2013). I was general chair for ASPLOS 2012 in London, UK, and have served on the programme committees for OSDI 2023, EuroSys 2023, USENIX ATC 2022, ASPLOS 2022, PPoPP 2021, EuroSys 2021, USENIX ATC 2021, OSDI 2020, VEE 2020, USENIX ATC 2020, ISMM 2020, EuroSys 2020, ASPLOS 2020, SOCC 2019, HotStorage 2019, EuroSys 2019, FAST 2019 ASPLOS 2018, EuroSys 2018, SOSP 2017, PLDI 2017, EuroSys 2017, PPoPP 2017, USENIX ATC 2016, SOSP 2015, PPoPP 2015, SNAPL 2015, OPODIS 2014, MSPC 2014 (joint chair), PLOS 2013 (joint chair), DSLDI 2013, ISMM 2013, EuroSys 2013, PODC 2013, OSDI 2012, PLOS 2011, SOSP 2011, HotPar 2011, POPL 2011, ICDCN 2011, VEE 2010, IPDPS 2010, ASPLOS 2010, PPoPP 2010, SSS 2009, PODC 2009, ESOP 2009, ASPLOS 2009, PPoPP 2009, DISC 2008, EuroSys Doctoral Workshop 2008, PPoPP 2008, VEE 2007, ISMM 2007, OOPSLA 2007, PLDI 2007, EuroSys 2007, DISC 2006, PODC 2006, PPoPP 2006, EuroSys Doctoral Workshop 2005 (chair), SCOOL 2005 (co-chair), VEE 2005, PODC CSJP Workshop 2004, and been a reviewer for numerous conferences and journals such as OOPSLA, OSDI, PLDI, POPL, SOSP, TOCS and TOPLAS.
Hiking
From 2019--2021 I walked from Lands End to John O'Groats (LEJoG) in a series of one-day or few-day stages. Since then I am working on completing the full UK coastline. I have a page showing the progress at https://whereistim.uk, and notes on my LEJoG route in a spreadsheet.
Photography
I have a separate web site for my photography at https://tlhphotography.uk, and more images on flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/timitim/.