Michael Stonebraker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael Stonebraker
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Michael Stonebraker giving the 2015 Turing lecture
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| Born | October 11, 1943 |
| Education | Princeton University (BS) University of Michigan (MS, PhD) |
| Known for | Ingres, Postgres, Vertica, Streambase, Illustra, VoltDB, SciDB |
| Spouse(s) | Beth |
| Awards | IEEE John von Neumann Medal (2005) ACM Turing Award (2014) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley University of Michigan Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Thesis | The Reduction of Large Scale Markov Models for Random Chains |
| Doctoral advisor | Arch Waugh Naylor |
| Notable students | Joseph M. Hellerstein Andy Pavlo Clifford A. Lynch Margo Seltzer Dale Skeen Marti Hearst Leilani Battle |
Michael Ralph Stonebraker (born October 11, 1943) is an American computer scientist. He is famous for his work on database systems. Databases are like super-organized digital filing cabinets that store information.
Stonebraker's research and the products he helped create are very important to how many modern databases work. He also started many companies that build database software. These include Ingres Corporation, Illustra, StreamBase Systems, Tamr, Vertica, and VoltDB. He even worked as the chief technical officer for Informix.
For all his amazing work in database research, Michael Stonebraker received the 2014 Turing Award. This award is often called "the Nobel Prize for computing."
Stonebraker's career has two main parts. First, he worked at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he focused on relational database management systems like Ingres and Postgres. Later, starting in 2001, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, he developed new ways to manage data, such as C-Store, H-Store, SciDB, and DBOS. Today, Stonebraker is a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley and an adjunct professor at MIT.
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Early Life and Education
Michael Stonebraker grew up in Milton, New Hampshire. He studied electrical engineering at Princeton University, earning his first degree in 1965. He then went on to get his master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1967 and 1971.
He has received many important awards for his work. These include the IEEE John von Neumann Medal and the first SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award. In 1994, he became a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. He was also chosen as a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1997. In March 2015, he was awarded the 2014 ACM Turing Award.
The Berkeley Years (1971–2000)
Stonebraker started teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971. He worked there for 29 years. During this time, he did his first important work on relational databases.
Developing Ingres
In 1973, Stonebraker and his friend Eugene Wong began studying relational database systems. They were inspired by papers from Edgar F. Codd, who first described the idea of a relational model.
Their project was called Ingres. It was one of the first systems to show that a practical and efficient relational database could be built. Many ideas from Ingres are still used in databases today. For example, it used B-trees to organize data and ways to check if data was correct.
By the mid-1970s, Stonebraker's team had created a working database system. Ingres was seen as a "smaller" system compared to IBM's System R. It ran on Unix-based machines, which were less powerful than IBM's large mainframe computers.
However, by the early 1980s, these smaller machines became much more powerful. This made Ingres a useful product for many different uses. Stonebraker and other professors helped start Relational Technology, Inc., which later became Ingres Corporation. Other companies, like Sybase, also used ideas from Ingres. Sybase's code was even used to create Microsoft SQL Server.
Creating Postgres
After Ingres, Stonebraker started a new project called POSTGRES (which stood for POST inGRES). This project aimed to improve the relational model. Postgres was designed to handle more complex types of data. It also made it easier for programmers to add new features or change how the database worked.
Postgres was also made available for others to use. Its code is the basis for the free software database called PostgreSQL. Stonebraker also helped create a company called Illustra to sell a commercial version of Postgres. Informix later bought Illustra. PostgreSQL has also been used by other companies like Aster Data Systems and Greenplum.
Mariposa and Cohera
After the Postgres project, Stonebraker started the Mariposa project. This project led to the company Cohera Corporation. Mariposa focused on combining data from many different places or organizations. It allowed users to search and use data as if it were all in one place.
Cohera later focused on managing business catalogs. Its technology was eventually bought by PeopleSoft and then by Oracle Corporation.
The MIT Years (2001–Present)
In 2001, Stonebraker became a professor at MIT. There, he started new research projects and helped create more companies.
Aurora and StreamBase
In the Aurora Project, Stonebraker and his colleagues worked on managing streaming data. This is data that arrives constantly, like stock prices or sensor readings. Unlike regular databases that you "ask" for data, streaming systems have data "pushed" to them as it comes in.
Stonebraker co-founded StreamBase Systems in 2003 to turn the Aurora technology into a product.
C-Store and Vertica
The C-Store project, started in 2005, focused on databases for data warehousing. Data warehousing is about storing large amounts of historical data for analysis. C-Store stored data in columns instead of rows. This made it faster to find specific information and saved storage space.
In 2005, Stonebraker co-founded Vertica to commercialize the C-Store technology.
H-Store and VoltDB
In 2007, Stonebraker started the H-Store project with researchers from other universities. H-Store was designed for very fast online transaction processing (OLTP). This means handling many quick updates, like when you buy something online.
In 2009, Stonebraker helped found VoltDB, a company based on the ideas from the H-Store project.
SciDB
In 2008, Stonebraker started SciDB. This is an open-source database system made especially for scientific research. It helps scientists manage and analyze huge amounts of data.
He also founded Paradigm4, which developed SciDB. Companies like Novartis and the National Institutes of Health use SciDB.
Notable Students
Michael Stonebraker has taught and mentored more than 30 students. Many of them have gone on to become important computer scientists and founders of their own companies. Some of his notable students include:
- Michael J. Carey, a professor at UC Irvine.
- Marti Hearst, a professor at UC Berkeley.
- Joseph M. Hellerstein, also a professor at UC Berkeley.
- Margo Seltzer, a professor at the University of British Columbia.
See also
In Spanish: Michael Stonebraker para niños
