Biosketch - M. Tamer Özsu

M. Tamer Özsu is a University Professor in David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo where he holds a Cheriton Faculty Fellowship. He also holds a Distinguished Visiting Professor position at Tsinghua University. He is the Founding Director of Waterloo-Huawei Joint Innovation Laboratory since 2018. He was the Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science from January 2007 to June 2010, and the Associate Dean of Research of the Faculty of Mathematics from January 2014 to June 2016. He holds a Ph.D. (1983) and an MS (1981) in Computer and Information Science from The Ohio State University (1983) and a B.S. (1974) and M.S. (1978) in Industrial Engineering from the Middle East Technical University (1974). Prior to joining University of Waterloo in 2000, he was with the University of Alberta, Department of Computing Science (1984-2000) where he served as the Acting Chair of the Department of Computing Science during 1994-1995. He has held visiting positions at GTE Laboratories (USA), INRIA Rocquencourt (France), GMD-IPSI, (Germany), University of Jyväskylä (Finland), Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), University of Udine (Italy), University of Milano (Italy), ETH Zürich (Switzerland), and National University of Singapore.

Dr. Özsu's research is broadly in data science focusing on data engineering. His research follows  two threads: large-scale data distribution, and management of non-traditional data (i.e., non-relational data). Currently, his research focus is on graph data and RDF data. Previously his research focus was on object systems, image, video, XML data, and their management in a distributed environment.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA). He is an elected member of the Science Academy of Turkey, and a member of Sigma Xi. He is the recipient of the IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award (2022), CS-Can/Info-Can Lifetime Achievement Award (2018), ACM SIGMOD Test-of-Time Award (2015), the ACM SIGMOD Contributions Award (2006), and The Ohio State University College of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award (2008). He is the four-time recipient of the University of Waterloo Outstanding Performance Award (2004, 2009, 2014, 2019). He has held Cheriton Faculty Fellowships (2013--2016, 2018--2024), a University Research Chair position (2004-2011), and a Faculty Research Fellowship (2000--2003) at the University of Waterloo, and a McCalla Research Professorship (1993--1994) at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Özsu is the author/co-author of three books including the classic Principles of Distributed Database Systems (with Patrick Valduriez) which is now in its fourth edition. He has edited twelve books/proceedings including the Encyclopedia of Database Systems (with Ling Liu), now in its second edition. He has published over 190 journal and conference papers, one of which was recognized by a test-of-time award and two with best paper awards. A fourth was selected for best paper honourable mention.

He founded the ACM Books and served as its Founding Editor-in-Chief (2014-2020). He was also the Founding Series Editor-in-Chief of Morgan & Claypool's Synthesis Lectures on Data Management (2009-2014). He serves on the editorial boards of ACM Transactions on Internet Technologies, World Wide Web Journal, FACETS, and Springer Book Series on Advanced Information & Knowledge Processing and Web Information Systems Engineering and Internet Technologies. He has served as the Program Chair of all three major database conferences: ACM SIGMOD (2014), IEEE ICDE (2007), and VLDB (2004), as well as of WISE (2001), IDEAS (2003), and CIKM (1996) conferences. He has been on the Program Committees of many conferences, symposia and workshops.

Dr. Özsu chairs the Steering/Advisory Committee of Polytechnic University of Hong Kong Research Centre on Data Science and AI, and serves on the Advisory Committee of Istanbul Technical University (Tuekey) Artificial Intelligence and Data Science Application and Research Centre, Technical Advisory Committee of Tsinghua University (China) National Engineering Laboratory for Big Data Software, and Advisory Boards of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology School of Engineering and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Big Data Institute.

He previously served on the CS-Can/Info-Can Board (2017-2020),  on the Publications Board of Association for Computing Machinery (2002-2017), on the Scientific Advisory Board of National Institute of Informatics of Japan (2011-2017),  and on the Technical Expert Advisory Committee of City University of Hong Kong Multimedia Software Engineering Research Center (2014-2019). He was  the Chair of ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data (SIGMOD) (2001-2005), an Editor-in-Chief of The VLDB Journal (1997-2005), an associate editor of ACM Computing Surveys (2005-2009), and a trustee of the VLDB Endowment (1996-2002). He served as the Canadian Association for Computer Science's representative on Computing Research Association's Board of Directors (2010-2013). He was a member and chair the Computer and Information Science Grant Selection Committee of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (1991-1994), and served on the Management Committee of the Canadian Genome Analysis and Technology Program (1992-1993).