Patricia G. Selinger is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

and

IBM Fellow An IBM Fellow is a position at IBM appointed by the CEO. Typically only four to nine (eleven in 2014) IBM Fellows are appointed each year, in May or June. Fellow is the highest honor a scientist, engineer, or programmer at IBM can achieve. Over ...

, best known for her work on

relational database management systems A relational database (RDB) is a database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) is a type of database management system that stores data in a structured form ...

Education

She received A.B. (1971), S.M. (1972), and Ph.D. (1975) degrees in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Biography

She played a fundamental role in the development of System R, a pioneering relational database implementation, and wrote the canonical paper on relational

query optimization Query optimization is a feature of many relational database management systems and other databases such as NoSQL and graph databases. The query optimizer attempts to determine the most efficient way to execute a given query by considering the po ...

. She is a pioneer in relational database management and inventor of the technique of cost-based query optimization. She was a key member of the original System R team that created the first relational database research prototype. The dynamic programming algorithm for determining join order proposed in that paper still forms the basis for most of the query optimizers used in modern relational systems. She also established and led IBM’s Database Technology Institute, considered one of the most successful examples of a fast technology pipeline from research to development and personally has technical contributions in the areas of database optimization, data parallelism, distributed data, and unstructured data management. Before her retirement from IBM, she was the Vice President of Data Management Architecture and Technology at IBM. Dr. Selinger was appointed an IBM Fellow in 1994, IBM’s highest technical recognition, and is an

ACM Fellow ACM Fellowship is an award and fellowship that recognises outstanding members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The title of ACM Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals ...

(2009) and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was also elected a member of the

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

(1999) for leadership and contributions to relational database technology. Dr. Selinger has published more than 40 papers, and also received the ACM Systems Software Award for her work on System R. She received the SIGMOD Innovations Award in 2002, the highest ACM award given in the area of data management. From 2014 through 2016, Dr. Selinger was the Chief Technology Officer at Paradata (Paradata.io) where she worked on challenging problems in data harmonization, curation, provenance, and entity resolution to provide transparency to the supply chain. Paradata technology transforms real-time data into verified insights and executable actions. From 2017 through 2018, Dr. Selinger served as a Principal Architect at

Salesforce.com Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and appl ...

. She is now retired.

References

External links

IBM Women in Technology ProfileDatabase Dialogue with Pat Selinger
an interview conducted by James Hamilton and published in the ''

Communications of the ACM ''Communications of the ACM'' (''CACM'') is the monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). History It was established in 1958, with Saul Rosen as its first managing editor. It is sent to all ACM members. Articles are i ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Selinger, Patricia IBM Fellows 2009 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Database researchers Living people Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni American women computer scientists American computer scientists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women