Viral B. Shah

Indian computer scientist

Julia (programming language)
Circuitscape
Rebooting India

AwardsJ. H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software (2019)Scientific careerFields

Computer science
Computational science

ThesisAn Interactive System for Combinatorial Scientific Computing with an Emphasis on Programmer Productivity (2007)Doctoral advisorJohn R. Gilbert WebsiteViral B. Shah on Twitter

Viral B Shah (Hindi: वीरल बी. शाह) is an Indian computer scientist, best known for being a co-creator of the Julia programming language.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] He was also actively involved in the initial design of the Aadhaar project in India which provides a 12-digit unique identity number to each Indian resident based on their biometric and demographic data. Based on his experiences implementing Aadhaar and other complex technology projects in government, he co-authored the book Rebooting India with Nandan Nilekani.^[7]

Shah is currently the CEO of JuliaHub (former company name Julia Computing), which he co-founded as Julia Computing with Julia co-creators, Jeff Bezanson, Alan Edelman, Stefan Karpinski as well as Keno Fischer and Deepak Vinchhi.^[8] In July 2021, Julia Computing raised $24 Million in Series A round led by Dorilton Ventures, with participation from Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, and HighSage Ventures.^[9]

Awards

In 2013, Shah received The Spatial Ecology and Telemetry Working Group (SETWG) award for co-creating Circuitscape with Brad McRae.^[10]^[11]
In 2019, Shah was awarded the J. H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software with Jeff Bezanson and Stefan Karpinski for their work on the Julia programming language.^[12]

References

^ Bryant, Avi. "Matlab, R, and Julia: Languages for data analysis". O'Reilly Strata.
^ Krill, Paul. "New Julia language seeks to be the C for scientists". InfoWorld.
^ Finley, Klint. "Out in the Open: Man Creates One Programming Language to Rule Them All". Wired.
^ Gibbs, Mark. "Pure and Julia are cool languages worth checking out". Network World (column). Retrieved 24 April 2017.
^ Thomas, Maria (20 April 2017). "An Indian computer scientist helped build an alternative programming language in Bengaluru". Quartz.
^ PK, Jayadevan (19 October 2016). "Julia is killing it in the programming world. Meet its co-creator from India". FactorDaily.
^ Nilekani, Nandan; Shah, Viral (2015). Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations. Penguin Group.
^ "Julia Computing: About Us". Julia Computing. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
^ "Julia Computing raises $24 mln in funding round led by Dorilton Ventures". Reuters. 19 July 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
^ "SETWG Awards 2013" (PDF). Retrieved 16 September 2019.
^ "Conservation through Coding: 5 Questions with Viral Shah". Retrieved 22 September 2019.
^ "Jeff Bezanson, Stefan Karpinski, and Viral B. Shah - James H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software". Retrieved 16 September 2019.