The annual ACM SIGMOD Doctoral Dissertation Award, inaugurated in 2006, recognizes excellent research by doctoral candidates in the database field. In 2008, SIGMOD, with the unanimous approval of ACM Council, decided to rename the award to honor Dr. Jim Gray.
Chris Re, a 2009 UW CSE Ph.D. alum, has been recognized as the winner of the 2010 award. Chris — now a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin – Madison (“The Other UW,” as we call each other) — completed his dissertation under UW CSE professor Dan Suciu.
Gerome Miklau, also a student of Dan Suciu’s and now a professor at UMass – Amherst, received the inaugural award in 2006. Nilesh Dalvi, also a student of Dan’s and now at Yahoo! Research, received one of two Honorable Mentions in 2008.
Congratulations to Chris, and (wow!) to Dan!