rajeev motwani google, rajeev motwani, motwani, asha jadeja, rajeev motwani stanford, motwani google
for advising Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, passed away
today unexpectedly. Widely praised for his investing acumen — having
backed both Google and PayPal early on — he will be remembered for his
genuine passion for teaching and technology.
Prior to his involvement with Google, Motwani founded the Mining Data
at Stanford project (MIDAS), an umbrella organization for several
groups looking into new and innovative data management concepts. As an
academic, he was also very interested in data privacy, web search,
robotics, computational drug design and theoretical computer science.
He co-authored a book titled Randomized Algorithms, as well as a
textbook, and produced numerous technology patents. For his work, he
received a long list of awards, including the prestigious Godel Prize,
the Okawa Foundation Research Award and the Arthur Sloan Research
Fellowship. He was still teaching classes as recently as last quarter.
Motwani was a nurturing force for many startups, according to close
friend and GigaOm editor Om Malik. As an investor and advisor, he sat
on the boards of Google, Kaboodle, Mimosa Systems, Adchemy, Baynote,
Vuclip and Stanford Student Enterprises, among many others. He was
also active in the Business Association of Stanford Engineering
Students (BASES).
Originally from New Delhi, Motwani earned his bachelor's degree in
computer science from IIT Kanpur in 1983, and his doctorate from UC
Berkeley in 1988. He arrived at Stanford shortly thereafter. As a
pillar of the Silicon Valley and Bay Area academic communities, he
will be dearly missed.
In his farewell post, Malik writes, "I am sure I am not the only one
who has benefited from [Motwani's] generosity of time and knowledge
and his ability to create connections and help others."
VentureBeat would like to echo his condolences and warm wishes for
Motwani's family.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment