Jennifer Widom is an American computer scientist known for her work in

database systems In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

and data management. She is notable for foundational contributions to

semi-structured data Semi-structured data is a form of structured data that does not obey the tabular structure of data models associated with relational databases or other forms of data tables, but nonetheless contains tags or other markers to separate semantic elem ...

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 Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

and multiple lifetime achievement awards from the Association for Computing Machinery.

Education

Widom earned a BS degree in trumpet performance from the

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

Jacobs School of Music The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom ar ...

in 1982 and a PhD in computer science under David Gries from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1987.

Academic career

Widom began her career as a researcher at the IBM Almaden Research Center and joined Stanford University as a professor in 1993. 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. In February 2017 she was named Dean of the School of Engineering. Widom is a

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of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) since 2005. 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. Widom is also a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

. 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 Course A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, man ...

s (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. In 2018, she won the Erna Hamburger prize from the

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internationa ...

-Women in Science and Humanities Foundation for her work with MOOCs.

Personal life

Widom is the daughter of Lois Widom and Harold Widom, an American mathematician.

Selected works

* Widom, Jennifer; (with H. Garcia-Molina and J. D. Ullman). ''Database Systems: The Complete Book'', New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2002. * Widom, Jennifer; (with J. D. Ullman). ''A First Course in Database Systems'', New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1997 and 2002. * Widom, Jennifer; (with H. Garcia-Molina and J.D. Ullman). ''Database System Implementation'', New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2000. * Widom, Jennifer; (with S. Ceri). ''Active Database Systems: Triggers and Rules for Advanced Database Processing'', San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann, 1996.

References

External links

Dean of Engineering page at Stanford
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Widom, Jennifer Living people Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Stanford University School of Engineering faculty Stanford University Department of Electrical Engineering faculty Database researchers American women computer scientists American computer scientists Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Cornell University alumni Indiana University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women