Jennifer Widom

Jennifer Widom is an American computer scientist known for her work in database systems and information management. She is the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the Stanford School of Engineering, the Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science, and a professor in the Stanford Department of Electrical Engineering.

Jennifer Widom
Jennifer Widom with workshop participants after training session
Alma materCornell University (Ph.D., M.S.)
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (B.S.)
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
ThesisTrace-Based Network Proof Systems: Expressiveness and Completeness (1987)
Notable studentsParag Agrawal
Websitecs.stanford.edu/people/widom/

Early life and education

Widom earned a PhD in computer science from Cornell University in 1987, and BS degree in trumpet performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 1982.[1][2]

Academic career

Widom began her career as a researcher at the IBM Almaden Research Center and joined Stanford University as a professor in 1993.[3] 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.[4] In February 2017 she was named Dean of the School of Engineering.[5]

In 2015, the ACM conferred her with 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.[6] Widom is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[7][2][8]

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.[9][10] 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.[11]

Personal life

She is the daughter of Lois Widom and Harold Widom, an American mathematician. Her husband, Alex Aiken, is also a computer science professor at Stanford.

Published 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. "Jennifer Widom". Stanford University website. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  2. Winslett, M. (September 2006). "Jennifer Widom Speaks Out". ACM SIGMOD Record. New York, NY, USA: The Association for Computing Machinery. 35 (3): 57–65. doi:10.1145/1168092.1168105. S2CID 40706158.
  3. "Dean | Stanford University School of Engineering". engineering.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-19.
  4. "Jennifer Widom's home page".
  5. "Computer scientist Jennifer Widom named dean of Stanford School of Engineering". Stanford News. Stanford News. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  6. "About ACM Athena Lecturer Award". awards.acm.org.
  7. "Jennifer Widom elected to the National Academy of Engineering". Archived from the original on 2011-06-11.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. Pethuraja.S (2 May 2015). Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) For Everyone. Pethuraja.S. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-93-5126-246-6.
  11. SA, Agefi (2018-10-06). "Le prix Erna Hamburger va à une pionnière des MOOCs". www.agefi.com (in French).
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