IBM Fellow, Retired
 

Dr. Pat Selinger is a retired Computer Scientist. She worked for IBM in both research and development in San Jose, California, focusing on technology development for the next generation of data management systems. Database management systems are the fundamental computer systems technology for storing, searching, indexing, securing, and querying massive amounts of information such as warehouse inventories, banking records, credit card purchases, and insurance records.

Dr. Selinger made substantial contributions to relational database technology which was invented to allow application programmers to access this data without having to know the location or order in which the data is stored. After joining IBM Research in 1975, Dr. Selinger became a leading member of the team that built System R, the first proof that relational database technology was practical. Her innovative work on cost-based query optimization for relational databases has now been adopted by nearly all relational database vendors and is now taught in virtually every university database course. The System R research prototype system also became the technical foundation for IBM's highly successful DB2 Universal Database family of products that runs on systems from personal computers and handheld devices all the way up to mainframes.

In the early 1980's, Dr. Selinger ran the IBM Almaden Research computer science department, featuring a broad spectrum of computer science research projects such as distributed systems, computer science theory, document systems, image processing, and database systems. In 1986, Dr. Selinger conceived and established the DataBase Technology Institute (DBTI), a joint program between IBM Research and the IBM software development team that accelerated advanced technology into data management products such as DB2 Universal Database. This is one of the most successful examples of a fast technology pipeline from research to development and has become a model other groups try to emulate.

Dr. Selinger moved from IBM Research to the IBM development team in 1997 where she became the Vice President for Information Management Architecture and Technology, driving the technical directions for IBM's information management products including not only database management systems but also business intelligence and content management. In 2004, Dr. Selinger returned to IBM Research in the role of Vice President, Information and Interaction strategy, where she was responsible for driving research technology for the next generation of information management for all types of data sources, both structured and unstructured (voice, documents, web, email, image). She has authored more than 40 research papers, and holds patents in relational database technology.

In her career, Dr. Selinger has received a number of professional honors and recognition. In 1987, she was among those receiving the ACM Systems Software Award for pioneering work in relational database systems. In 1994, Dr. Selinger received the title of IBM Fellow, an honor accorded only to the top 50 technical experts in IBM, for her exceptional technical work and leadership in relational databases. In 1999, she was elected into the National Academy of Engineering. In 2002, Dr. Selinger received the SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award for her work in query optimization and in 2004, she was elected to the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.

Dr. Selinger received her A.B., S.M., and PhD from Harvard University in Applied Mathematics. She has served as general conference chair, program committee chair, and program committee member for numerous technical conferences, has been an invited keynote speaker for many conferences, and currently is a member of the Women in Technology International Unlimited Advisory Board as well as several IEEE and National Academy of Engineering awards committees.