Jennifer Widom

Jennifer Widom
Born1960 or 1961 (age 63–64)
EducationCornell University (Ph.D., M.S.)
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (B.S.)
Known for
Children2
FatherHarold Widom
RelativesBenjamin Widom (uncle)
AwardsErna Hamburger Prize (2018)
ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award (2015)
American Academy of Arts & Sciences Member (2009)
National Academy of Engineering Member (2005)
ACM Fellow (2005)
Guggenheim Foundation Fellow (2000)
Scientific career
InstitutionsStanford University
IBM Almaden Research Center
Cornell University
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
Thesis Trace-Based Network Proof Systems: Expressiveness and Completeness  (1987)
Doctoral advisorDavid Gries
Doctoral studentsParag Agrawal
Websitecs.stanford.edu/people/widom/

Jennifer Widom (born 1960 or 1961)[1] is an American computer scientist known for her work in database systems and data management. She is notable for foundational contributions to semi-structured data management and data stream management systems. Since 2017, Widom is the dean of the School of Engineering and professor of computer science at Stanford University. Her honors include the Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science and multiple lifetime achievement awards from the Association for Computing Machinery.[2][3]

Education

Widom earned a BS degree in trumpet performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 1982 and a PhD in computer science under David Gries from Cornell University in 1987.[4][5]

Academic career

Widom began her career as a researcher at the IBM Almaden Research Center and joined Stanford University as a professor in 1993.[6] She was the chair of the Stanford computer science department from 2009 to 2014, and served as senior associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in the School of Engineering from 2014 to 2016.[7] In February 2017 she was named Dean of the School of Engineering.[8]

Widom is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) since 2005.[2] In 2015, she won the ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award, which honors prominent female computer scientists, for her work in the introduction of fundamental concepts and architectures of active database systems.[9] Widom is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[10][5][11]

Widom has co-authored four academic textbooks on database systems. These books focus on database design, use, and implementation of applications and management systems. The course materials have been utilized at the junior, senior, and graduate levels in the computer science department.

In late 2011, Widom launched one of the first Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), entitled "Introduction to Databases". The course had more than 100,000 enrolled students, and launched at the same time as two other MOOCs by Stanford University School of Engineering faculty.[12][13] In 2018, she won the Erna Hamburger prize from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne -Women in Science and Humanities Foundation for her work with MOOCs.[14]

Personal life

Widom is the daughter of Lois Widom and Harold Widom, an American mathematician.[15] Her uncle Benjamin Widom is on the Cornell faculty in chemistry.[16] Widom is married to Alex Aiken, former chair of Stanford's computer science department. The couple has a son and a daughter.[17]

Selected works

  • Widom, Jennifer; (with H. Garcia-Molina and J. D. Ullman). Database Systems: The Complete Book, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2002. ISBN 978-0-13-031995-1
  • Widom, Jennifer; (with J. D. Ullman). A First Course in Database Systems, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1997 and 2002. ISBN 978-0-13-035300-9
  • Widom, Jennifer; (with H. Garcia-Molina and J.D. Ullman). Database System Implementation, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2000. ISBN 978-0-13-040264-6
  • Widom, Jennifer; (with S. Ceri). Active Database Systems: Triggers and Rules for Advanced Database Processing, San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, 1996. ISBN 978-1-55860-304-2

References

  1. ^ "Computer scientist Jennifer Widom named dean of Stanford School of Engineering". Stanford. February 27, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Jennifer Widom". awards.acm.org. Archived from the original on 2022-04-26. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
  3. ^ "Professor Jennifer Widom". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  4. ^ "Jennifer Widom". Stanford University website. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  5. ^ a b Winslett, M. (September 2006). "Jennifer Widom Speaks Out". ACM SIGMOD Record. 35 (3). New York, NY, USA: The Association for Computing Machinery: 57–65. doi:10.1145/1168092.1168105. S2CID 40706158.
  6. ^ "Dean | Stanford University School of Engineering". engineering.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  7. ^ "Jennifer Widom's Home Page". cs.stanford.edu. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  8. ^ "Computer scientist Jennifer Widom named dean of Stanford School of Engineering". Stanford News. Stanford News. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  9. ^ "About ACM Athena Lecturer Award". awards.acm.org.
  10. ^ "Jennifer Widom elected to the National Academy of Engineering". Archived from the original on 2011-06-11.
  11. ^ Stanford, © Stanford University; Notice, California 94305 Copyright Complaints Trademark (2009-04-20). "12 scholars named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Stanford University. Retrieved 2021-10-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Fiona M. Hollands; Devayani Tirthali (25 September 2015). MOOCs in Higher Education: Institutional Goals and Paths Forward. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 26–27. ISBN 978-1-137-52737-0.
  13. ^ Pethuraja.S (2 May 2015). Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) For Everyone. Pethuraja.S. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-93-5126-246-6.
  14. ^ SA, Agefi (2018-10-06). "Le prix Erna Hamburger va à une pionnière des MOOCs". www.agefi.com (in French).
  15. ^ Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator. "SLAC Teams with Stanford to Tackle Exascale Challenges". cacm.acm.org. Retrieved 2022-08-08.
  16. ^ "In Memoriam: Harold Widom (1932–2021)". UC Santa Cruz. January 26, 2021.
  17. ^ Mariwala, Vibhav (February 28, 2017). "Widom named dean of School of Engineering". The Stanford Daily.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jennifer Widom.