PeopleofSuperintelligence

Lab leader

Doug Burger

Also known as Douglas C. Burger

Doug Burger is a Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, where he oversees a global organization that steers Microsoft Research toward breakthroughs in AI and computer science. He earned a Yale BS in 1991 and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998, then joined the computer sciences faculty at UT Austin, where he stayed until 2008. From 2008 to 2018 he led research teams at Microsoft Research that built Brainwave, an AI acceleration system, and the Catapult FPGA platform. In 2018 he co-founded Azure's custom hardware division, and his team developed microscaling quantization, realized in the MX number format. He was elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2026.

Works
348
Citations
24,693
h-index
67

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1991–1998

    Degrees from Yale and Wisconsin

    He earns a Yale BS in computer science in 1991. He completes an MS in 1993 and a PhD in 1998 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

  2. 1998–2008

    Faculty at UT Austin

    He joins the computer sciences faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in 1998, where he co-leads a research lab until 2008.

  3. 2006

    A Maurice Wilkes Award

    He wins the 2006 Maurice Wilkes Award from the ACM for contributions to spatially distributed processor and memory system architectures.

  4. 2008–2018

    Brainwave and Catapult

    From 2008 to 2018 he leads research teams that build Brainwave, an AI acceleration system, and the Catapult FPGA platform. Project Catapult begins in 2010 with a small team led by him and Derek Chiou.

  5. 2018–2023

    Azure's custom hardware division

    In 2018 he moves with his team into Azure to co-found the custom hardware division, where he designs AI supercomputers. There he and his team develop microscaling quantization, realized in the MX number format.

  6. 2023

    Back at Microsoft Research

    He returns to Microsoft Research in 2023 as managing director of its core research labs.

  7. 2026

    National Academy of Engineering

    He is elected to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2026 for accelerating cloud-scale computing and networking infrastructure with field-programmable systems.

  8. As of October 2026

    Technical Fellow at Microsoft

    He is a Technical Fellow and Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, overseeing a global organization that steers Microsoft Research toward breakthroughs in AI and computer science.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Doug Burger's Microsoft Page microsoft.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. University of Texas at Austin Computer Sciences Professor Receives 2006 Maurice Wilkes Award | UT Austin Computer Science cs.utexas.edu. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. ACM SIGARCH Maurice Wilkes Award | SIGARCH sigarch.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. Project Catapult - Microsoft Research microsoft.com. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. TAMEST Welcomes Ten Texans Elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) tamest.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  6. How Microsoft Research Balances Exploration and Impact Globally with Doug Burger analyse.asia. Checked 15 October 2026.