Institute Professor Thomas L. Magnanti, dean of the School of Engineering, has announced the selection of Professor Michael L. Dertouzos, director of the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS), as the first holder of the newly created TIBCO Founders' Chair.
Endowed by a $3.1 million gift made by the Founders' Fund of the Palo Alto-based TIBCO Software Inc., the professorship will support research and teaching in computer science and honor a senior faculty member whose accomplishments are widely recognized.
"What is unusual about this chair is that founders, employees and friends of TIBCO Software Inc., including a number of former MIT alumni, joined together to demonstrate their common appreciation of MIT and its influence in information technology," said Dean Magnanti. "It seems especially fitting that we should award the first TIBCO Founders' Chair, born in this unique way, to a distinguished pioneer who has brought a uniquely innovative approach to the field of computer science."
"We are honored that the first holder of the TIBCO Founders' Chair will be Professor Dertouzos," said Rick Tavan, executive vice president of the company. "At TIBCO, we have always promoted 'event-driven computing,' a technique that delivers information to people in real time, without any need to 'ask a question.' Professor Dertouzos's vision of 'human-centric computing' is a challenge we strive to meet."
"I am delighted that the TIBCO Founders have decided to recognize MIT with this chair, and I'm doubly delighted to be its first holder," said Professor Dertouzos.
Professor Dertouzos of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) joined the MIT faculty in 1964 and has been LCS director since 1974. He has spent much of his career forecasting and leading technological shifts. In his eighth book, he calls for a radical shift toward "human-centric computing." He is a member of the US Academy of Engineering, the US Council on Foreign Relations and the Athens Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a US delegate to the 1995 G-7 meeting on the Information Society and served as the co-chair of the 1998 World Economic Forum on the Network Society.
In addition to endowing a permanent chair in the School of Engineering, the TIBCO Founders' Fund, established in December, is also endowing two Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program projects to support students in EECS and affiliated labs.
TIBCO Software Inc. is a provider of real-time e-business infrastructure software. Their products enable the real-time distribution of information through patented technology called the Information Bus��� or TIB���.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on February 7, 2001.
