Dean Jennifer Widom receives the 2018 Erna Hamburger Prize
Jennifer Widom, the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the School of Engineering, Fletcher Jones Professor in Computer Science and professor of electrical engineering, recently received the 2018 Erna Hamburger Prize from the EPFL-WISH Foundation for her research in data management and analysis.
The award, established in 2006 by the EPFL-WISH (Women in Science and Humanities) Foundation in honor of the first female professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), recognizes the most influential woman in science each year as determined by the foundation’s council members and president.
Award honorees are celebrated for their dedication to informing, educating and motivating other women in science. Previous winners include Nobel Prize winners May-Britt Moser and Ada Yonath and Pritzker Prize winner Kazuyo Sejima.
Widom has been on the Stanford faculty since 1993. She served as the computer science department chair from 2009 to 2014 and School of Engineering senior associate dean from 2014 to 2016. Her research in nontraditional data management has opened up foundational tools in information management and analysis to companies and organizations around the world. Her global perspective and interest in the public domain has also fostered increased collaboration in the classroom and in her priorities for the School of Engineering.
As a pioneer in engineering education, Widom was one of the first professors to teach a massive open online course (MOOC) and spent her 2016–17 sabbatical teaching computer science to students in developing countries. She continues to offer short courses and workshops at Stanford and abroad.
The EPFL-WISH Foundation honored Widom at an awards ceremony in Switzerland this October, where she delivered a lecture on her philosophies of research and teaching.
Learn more about Dean Widom’s vision for the school and her priorities for the coming year:
