Meredith L. Patterson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Meredith L. Patterson
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Meredith Patterson (2010)
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| Born | April 30, 1977 |
| Occupation | Researcher, writer |
| Known for | DIYbio, X.509 attacks |
| Spouse(s) |
Len Sassaman
(m. 2006; died 2011) |
Meredith L. Patterson, born on April 30, 1977, is an American expert in technology. She is also a science fiction writer and a journalist. Meredith has given many talks at important conferences about various topics. She writes a blog and develops computer programs. She is also a key person in the biopunk movement, which is about doing biology experiments yourself.
Meredith grew up in Houston. She studied linguistics (the study of language) and computer science. She earned a Master's degree in linguistics and a PhD in computer science from the University of Iowa. Early in her career, Patterson worked in many different jobs. She designed websites, wrote technical guides, taught math, and reviewed restaurants for the Houston Press newspaper.
In computer science, she made important discoveries. She used computational linguistics (which combines language and computers) to improve computer security. She found new ways to stop SQL injection attacks, which are ways hackers try to break into databases. She also added data mining tools to PostgreSQL databases. This led her to start her own company called Osogato. Meredith also helped with many open-source projects. She worked with her husband, Len Sassaman, on important research about internet security problems. As a writer, Patterson has created science fiction stories and poems. Her scientific interests often inspire her writing. She also writes on her blog about topics like copyright reform, biohacking, civil rights, and programming languages.
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Early Life and Education
Meredith Patterson lived in and around Houston for 24 years. Then, she moved to Iowa City, Iowa. There, she studied for her Master's degree in linguistics. She also worked on her PhD in computer science. Patterson went to Kingwood High School from 1990 to 1994. To support herself, she worked as a website designer and a technical writer. She also taught math and reviewed restaurants for the Houston Press.
In 1999, she was the treasurer for the Mars Society's Houston group. That same year, when she was 22, she traveled to the Arctic Circle. She went as a reporter for NASA to cover a mission that was like a practice run for going to Mars.
Computer Science and Research
Patterson is well-known for her work in computational linguistics. This field uses computers to understand and process human language. She applies this knowledge to make computers more secure. In 2005, she showed a new way to stop SQL injection attacks. These attacks try to trick databases into giving up secret information. She presented her method at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.
She also created a special tool for PostgreSQL databases. This tool uses support vector machines, which are part of data mining. It helps database managers find information by giving examples of what they are looking for. This work was first supported by Google's Summer of Code program. Now, Patterson's data mining work is the main idea behind her company, Osogato. Osogato combines this data mining with tools that understand music. This allows users to create music playlists from their own songs. They can also find new music based on the sounds of songs they like. Osogato was launched at an event called SuperHappyDevHouse.
Before starting Osogato, Patterson worked for Mu Security. Before that, she was a PhD student at the University of Iowa. She studied linguistics at the University of Houston for her first degree. She then received her master's degree in linguistics from the University of Iowa.
Patterson has helped with many open-source database projects. These include SciTools, Klein, and QBE. She also wrote improvements for PostgreSQL. Her "Dejector" tool works with PostgreSQL to use her method for stopping SQL injection attacks. Patterson also helped with the Summer of Code project called Firekeeper. Her husband, Len Sassaman, guided this project.
In 2009, at BlackHat, Dan Kaminsky shared research he did with Patterson and Sassaman. They found big problems in how the internet's certificate authority system works. This system helps make sure websites are safe. Their work showed that web browsers could be tricked into accepting fake X.509 certificates.
Writing and Blogging
Meredith Patterson is a science fiction author. She has published many short stories in magazines like Fortean Bureau and Strange Horizons. Her stories have also appeared in collections such as The Doom of Camelot and The Children of Cthulhu. She also helped write for the Steve Jackson Games game GURPS Villains. Her poems are often inspired by her scientific research. For example, her poem "Leaving Devon Island" is about the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada.
Patterson often writes on her personal blog. She discusses topics like copyright reform and biohacking. She also writes about important public issues and civil rights. She talks about different programming languages too. Patterson has also written many articles for the popular blog BoingBoing.
In the spring of 2008, she published a paper with David Chaum and Len Sassaman. This paper was presented at a USENIX workshop. It pointed out that the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) computer did not pay enough attention to user privacy.
Since late 2015, she has been a co-editor of the Status:451 blog. This blog states that freedom of speech is its main idea. In April 2016, the blog gained attention for successfully raising money online. This money was used to have blogger and entrepreneur Curtis Yarvin speak at the LambdaConf programming conference.
Personal Life
Meredith Patterson gave presentations at CodeCon twice. She married Len Sassaman, who helped organize the event. He proposed to her publicly at CodeCon 2006. Since Sassaman was also well-known in the technology community, their marriage was seen as an example of a "geek power couple". They were together until Sassaman passed away in 2011.
Patterson was diagnosed with autism as an adult. She has said that her strong focus has helped her have a very positive experience in the technology community, which is mostly male. She knows that some women have faced unfair treatment. However, she believes that groups supporting women should also recognize the positive experiences of women who feel welcome. She prefers organizations like the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology over the Ada Initiative for these reasons.
See also
- Information privacy
- Information security
