Alfred Spector

Alfred Zalmon Spector
Born	(1954-10-14) October 14, 1954
Occupation(s)	Computer scientist, research manager
Years active	1980s–present
Known for	Distributed computing systems, Andrew File System, research leadership at Google and Two Sigma

Alfred Zalmon Spector (born October 14, 1954) is a distinguished American computer scientist and leader in research management. He holds the position of Professor of Practice within the MIT EECS Department and has previously been the Chief Technology Officer at Two Sigma Investments as well as Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives at Google.

Education

Spector obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and completed his PhD in computer science at Stanford University in 1981. His doctoral research concentrated on communication frameworks for multiprocessor systems utilizing network-connected computers, including performance evaluations of remote procedure call mechanisms on experimental Ethernet networks. His dissertation, titled Multiprocessing Architectures for Local Computer Networks, was supervised by Forest Baskett III.

Career

Beginning his academic tenure as an associate professor in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Spector mentored doctoral candidates such as Randy Pausch, Jeff Eppinger, and Joshua Bloch. In 1989, he co-established Transarc Corporation, which commercialized distributed transaction processing and wide-area file system technologies derived from CMU's Andrew File System. Following Transarc’s acquisition by IBM, Spector advanced to executive roles within IBM’s Software Group, including vice president positions overseeing global software and services research and strategic initiatives.

In November 2007, he joined Google as vice president of research, a role he fulfilled until his retirement in early 2015. Subsequently, he assumed the role of CTO at the technology-focused hedge fund Two Sigma Investments, serving until mid-2020.

Advisory committees

Spector has significantly influenced academic computer science through various advisory appointments. He chaired the NSF CISE Advisory Committee from 2004 to 2005 and contributed to advisory boards at institutions such as City College of New York, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Rice, and Stanford. Between 2006 and 2013, he was a member of the National Academy Computer Science and Telecommunication Board and led the Computer Science and Engineering Section of the National Academy of Engineering.

Speaking/writing

Throughout his career, Spector has delivered insights on pivotal computer science and engineering topics. In 2004, he introduced the term CS+X to promote the integration of computer science with other disciplines. Collaborating with Peter Norvig and Slav Petrov, he co-authored Google’s Hybrid Approach to Research, outlining their collaborative research model at Google. Since 2016, he has championed a multidisciplinary data science approach that embraces humanities and social sciences, detailed in his talk Opportunities and Perils in Data Science. As a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar during 2018–19, he shared these perspectives across multiple U.S. universities.

Awards and recognition

In recognition of his work on distributed computing systems, Spector was honored with the IEEE Computer Society's Tsutomu Kanai Award in 2001. Alongside colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University, he received the 2016 ACM Software Systems Award for their development of the Andrew File System (AFS). His election to the National Academy of Engineering occurred in 2004; he was named a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery in 2006 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009, where he currently serves on its council.

Alfred was also highlighted in Institutional Investor’s 2017 Tech 40 list and served as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar during the academic year 2018–19.