Jeffrey A Dean

Digital Library

ACM Prize in Computing

USA - 2012

citation

For their leadership in the science and engineering of Internet-scale distributed systems.

Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat led the conception, design, and implementation of much of Google's revolutionary software infrastructure, which has transformed the practice and understanding of Internet-scale computing. Their efforts, along with those of their collaborators, created the first software designs for systems that harness the power of tens of thousands of computers. Their designs for systems such as MapReduce and BigTable are remarkable for scalability, the grace with which they tolerate faults, and the ease with which they support the construction of many new distributed services. We are in a new age of Internet-scale computing thanks in significant measure to the engineering innovations of Dean and Ghemawat.
Press Release

ACM Fellows

USA - 2009

citation

For contributions to the science and engineering of large-scale distributed computer systems.

2012 ACM-Infosys Foundation Award Recipients Dean, Ghemawat Honored For Innovations That Boost Online Search Capabilities

Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat led the conception, design, and implementation of much of Google's revolutionary software infrastructure, which has transformed the practice and understanding of Internet-scale computing. 

Background

Jeff Dean is a Google Fellow in the Systems Infrastructure Group. Before joining Google, he was at Digital Equipment Corporation's Western Research Laboratories. In 1990 and 1991, Dean worked for the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS, developing software for statistical modeling, forecasting, and analysis of the HIV pandemic. A Fellow of ACM, he is a co–recipient (with Sanjay Ghemawat) of the 2012 ACM—Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2009. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota with a M.S. degree in Computer Science, he received a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Washington.

Research areas include large–scale distributed systems, performance monitoring, compression techniques, information retrieval, application of machine learning to search and other related problems, microprocessor architecture, compiler optimizations, and development of new products that organize existing information in new and interesting ways. Products Jeff has developed for Google include AdSense, MapReduce, BigTable, and Google Translate.