Jaime Teevan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jaime Teevan
Teevan speaking at the AEA Conference in 2025
Born	1976 (age 48–49)
Education	Yale University (BS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Awards	TR35 (2009) Borg Early Career Award (2014) Karen Spärck Jones Award (2016) ACM Fellow (2022) SIGIR Academy (2022) CHI Academy (2022) TIME 100 AI (2023)
Scientific career
Fields	Computer science Human-Computer Interaction Information Retrieval
Institutions	Microsoft Research
Doctoral advisor	David Karger

Jaime Teevan (born 1976) is an American computer scientist and a top leader at Microsoft. She is famous for her work on AI and how it helps people be more productive.

Learning and Early Work

Jaime Teevan studied Computer Science at Yale University. She earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree there. While still in college, she created a new way to use links on the internet. This helped people find information better. She even sold her ideas to Infoseek, which was an early search engine.

Later, she went to the MIT. There, she earned her Ph.D. and S.M. degrees. At MIT, she helped start a new field called Personal Information Management. This area focuses on how people organize and use their own information.

Working at Microsoft

Jaime Teevan has spent many years as a researcher at Microsoft Research. She has looked at how people use computers. She also studies how people find information and work together. Her goal is to help people find, manage, and use information easily. This is especially true when they are busy or working with others.

From 2017 to 2018, Teevan worked as a special advisor. She advised Satya Nadella, who is the CEO of Microsoft. She was the first technical advisor with a background in AI.

Today, she is Microsoft's Chief Scientist. In 2022, she became a Microsoft Technical Fellow. This is a very high honor at Microsoft. She is a key person helping Microsoft use AI in its products. Business Insider magazine called her "the brains behind Microsoft's productivity innovations." This means she helps make Microsoft tools better for getting things done.

Helping People Work Better

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Jaime Teevan led a big project. It was called Microsoft's Future of Work initiative. Researchers from Microsoft, LinkedIn, and GitHub worked together. They studied how the pandemic changed the way people work.

This research led to new features in Microsoft products. For example, they made it easier to have meetings. These meetings could include people working from home and in the office.

In 2022, Teevan started leading the M365 Copilot project. This project puts the newest AI into Microsoft's main products. She focused on adding AI to tools like Word, Excel, and Teams. She talked about this work when M365 Copilot was launched. She explained the "art and science" behind Copilot.

Research and Achievements

Jaime Teevan has written over 100 research papers. These papers have won many awards. Her work often focuses on finding information and how people use computers. She also studies how people will work in the future.

She helped write the first book about finding information together. She also edited a book about Personal Information Management.

Personalized Search and Microproductivity

Teevan is well-known for her work on personalized search. This means search results are unique for each person. They are based on what that person knows and likes. Technology Review magazine said she "is a leader in using data about people's knowledge, preferences, and habits to help them manage information."

She also works on something called 'microproductivity.' This means breaking down big tasks into small, easy steps. These small steps can be done quickly and efficiently. She also created the idea of selfsourcing. This is when you do these small tasks yourself. A 2017 article quoted her saying she could find an extra hour in her day. She could do this by using small moments of time more productively.

Awards and Honors

Jaime Teevan has received many important awards. In 2009, she was named a Young Innovator by Technology Review (TR35). This was for her work on personalized search. In 2014, she received the CRA-W Borg Early Career Award.

In 2016, she won the Karen Spärck Jones award. The British Computer Society gave her this award. It was for her "creative contributions" to finding information. It also recognized her work on user experience and social media.

In 2022, she became a Microsoft Technical Fellow. She was also named an ACM Fellow. This was for her work on how people use computers. It also recognized her contributions to finding information and productivity. That same year, she joined the SIGCHI and SIGIR Academies. In 2023, TIME magazine included her on its list. This was the first list of the 100 most influential people in AI.

Teevan also helps lead the Computing Research Association (CRA).

Family Life

Jaime Teevan is married to Alexander Hehmeyer. They live in Bellevue, Washington. They have four children. Teevan also supports researchers who are parents. She helps them balance their family life with their academic work.