PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alistair Moffat

Alistair Moffat works on text compression and search engines at the University of Melbourne, and he co-authors a 2026 study of LLM re-ranking behavior. He completed a PhD at the University of Canterbury in 1985, and his books include Managing Gigabytes (1994) and Compression and Coding Algorithms (2002). He co-chaired the SIGIR conference in 2005 with John Tait and Gary Marchionini, and he joined the ACM SIGIR Academy in 2021. The ACM named him a Fellow in 2025 for work on implementing and evaluating search engines, and CORE awarded him its Distinguished Service Award in 2026. As of October 2026, he is a professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne.

Works
417
Citations
15,052
h-index
56

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1985

    A doctorate on shortest paths

    He earns a PhD at the University of Canterbury in 1985, with a dissertation on fast algorithms for shortest paths.

  2. 1994–2002

    Two books on compression

    Managing Gigabytes, a book on compressing and indexing documents and images, appears in 1994. He co-writes its second edition with Ian Witten and Timothy Bell in 1999, and he publishes Compression and Coding Algorithms in 2002.

  3. 2005

    Co-chair of SIGIR 2005

    He co-chairs the SIGIR conference in 2005 with John Tait and Gary Marchionini.

  4. 2006–2010

    Carrick and teaching awards

    He receives a national Carrick Citation for teaching in 2006. He wins a Melbourne School of Engineering teaching excellence award in 2010.

  5. 2021

    Joining the SIGIR Academy

    He joins the ACM SIGIR Academy in 2021.

  6. 2025

    Named an ACM Fellow

    He is named an ACM Fellow in 2025 for contributions to the implementation and evaluation of search engines.

  7. 2026

    CORE Distinguished Service Award

    He receives the CORE Distinguished Service Award in 2026.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor at Melbourne

    He is a professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne. He co-authors "Does Form Affect Function?", a 2026 study of LLM re-ranking behavior.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Alistair Moffat yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Alistair Moffat - The Mathematics Genealogy Project mathgenealogy.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. Alistair Moffat people.eng.unimelb.edu.au. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. DBLP: Alistair Moffat vldb.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. Prof Alistair Moffat : Find an Expert : The University of Melbourne findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. SIGIR Academy | SIGIR sigir.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. core.edu.au - Awards core.edu.au. Checked 15 October 2026.
  7. Does Form Affect Function? An Extended Study of LLM Re-Ranking Behavior : Find an Expert : The University of Melbourne findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au. Checked 15 October 2026.