Mira Castellanos
Creator of a widely used runtime
EST. 2028 / EVERY THREE YEARS
The Empyrean
Award
For the people who build the software everyone else builds on.
Apply for 2028
Applications open000d 00:00:00
Why this exists
Software runs the world now. Once every three years we stop, look at the work, and name the people who built the parts that hold everything else up.
20192022202520282031
Categories
Six categories- 01
Systems
Databases, runtimes, the stuff under everything.
- 02
Developer Tools
The things you keep open all day.
- 03
Open Source
Work you gave away that everyone now depends on.
- 04
AI and ML
Models, training, and the plumbing around them.
- 05
Security
Breaking it, then making it hard to break.
- 06
Design Engineering
Where the pixels meet the code.
The Jury
Forty jurors, blind scoringTomas Whitfield
Principal engineer, distributed systems
Aisha Bello
Maintainer of a core tracing library
Jun Park
Built a compiler you have probably used
Eleanor Voss
Security researcher and exploit author
Rafael Ortiz
Design engineer, interface systems
Nadia Rahman
Database internals, twenty years of it
Soren Klein
Open source steward, package registries
Recent laureates
Past laureates2022
Class of 2022- SystemsPriya VenkateshBorealis, a storage engine
- Developer ToolsMarcus LindqvistCutline, a build tool
- Open SourceYuki Tanakathe Petal HTTP library
- AI and MLSofia MarchettiTensorgrid, a training framework
- SecurityDmitri Sokolovthe Ward sandbox
- Design EngineeringHana OkaforLoom, an interface kit