Professor Tamer Özsu named University Professor

Professor M. Tamer Özsu, a founding member of the Data Systems Group at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, has been named a University Professor by the University of Waterloo, a distinction conferred to academics of exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence.

An extraordinarily prolific computer scientist, Professor Özsu has written more than 180 peer-reviewed publications, edited 12 volumes and authored two books. He is the co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Database Systems, a comprehensive reference covering key concepts in database systems — a standard graduate resource that has become a citation classic. He has supervised 16 PhD students and 36 master’s students, many of whom have gone on to leading positions in industry and universities worldwide.

Professor Özsu’s current research explores distributed and parallel data management and applying database technology to non-traditional data types, particularly graph representations. Such representations are used to capture the structure of volumous and complex datasets and to make sense of them in the era of Big Data.

In 2017, Professor Özsu was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his principled contributions to database systems research, education and service. And, in 2016, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for his pioneering contributions to distributed data management. He is also an elected member of Turkey’s Science Academy and elected fellows of both the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the two most influential and respected professional organizations in computer science.

Professor Özsu’s served as the Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science from 2007 to 2010 and the Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Mathematics from 2014 to 2017. He was named a University Research Chair in 2004, a seven-year appointment held by a handful of professors across the University of Waterloo. He was a Cheriton Faculty Fellow, a three-year appointment that recognizes exceptional researchers within the Cheriton School of Computer Science from 2013 to 2016.

“Congratulations to Tamer for receiving the well-deserved recognition of University Professor,” said Mark Giesbrecht, Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. “He has had a transformative impact on computer science research and education at the University of Waterloo and internationally.”

“Professor Özsu practices the highest standards of academic integrity,” wrote Professor Renée Miller at the University of Toronto in her nomination letter. “He is always generous to his peers and students, dealing with them not only fairly and scrupulously, but also with tremendous kindness and compassion. He supports his peers and is quick to recognize and praise their talents.”

Since 2004, the University of Waterloo has recognized exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence through the designation of University Professor. Once appointed, a faculty member retains this title until retirement. Professor Özsu is the fourth faculty member at the Cheriton School of Computer Science to receive this prestigious distinction, joining Professors Ian Munro (2006), Ming Li (2009) and Doug Stinson (2013).