DLS • Jennifer Widom • Magic Moments in Research and Teaching

Jennifer Widom
​Frederick Emmons Terman Dean, School of Engineering
Fletcher Jones Professor, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Stanford University

Abstract: A few magic moments have occurred during my approximately 30 years of computer science research and 25 years of teaching. On the research side, I'll recount some specific challenges, and I'll explain a set of principles that became career-long basic tenets of my approach to research. On the education side, I'll revisit the unforgettable experience of delivering one of Stanford's first free online classes that launched the MOOC revolution, and I'll mention my recent sabbatical odyssey bringing in-person short courses to 17 developing countries.

Bio: Jennifer Widom is the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the School of Engineering and the Fletcher Jones Professor in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. She served as Computer Science Department Chair from 2009–2014 and School of Engineering Senior Associate Dean from 2014–2016.

Jennifer received her Bachelor's degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 1982 and her Computer Science Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1987. She was a Research Staff Member at the IBM Almaden Research Center before joining the Stanford faculty in 1993. Her research interests span many aspects of nontraditional data management. She is an ACM Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; she received the ACM-W Athena Lecturer Award in 2015, the ACM SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award in 2007, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000.

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