Laura M. Haas
Laura M. Haas | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Harvard University (A.B.), University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D.) |
| Occupation | Computer scientist |
| Employer(s) | IBM Research, University of Massachusetts Amherst |
| Known for | Database technologies, information integration, federated database systems |
| Notable work | Starburst project, Garlic data federation platform, IBM InfoSphere Federation Server, Clio project |
| Spouse | Peter J. Haas |
Laura M. Haas is a distinguished American computer scientist known for her groundbreaking contributions to database technologies and information integration. She pioneered systems that facilitate the unification of diverse data sources, including federated approaches for virtual data access and innovative mapping methods empowering users without programming expertise to define data integration processes.
Haas was at the forefront of the Starburst initiative, which focused on creating extensible database systems and showcased how heterogeneous information could be incorporated into relational databases. This foundational work influenced IBM's DB2 LUW query processing engine. As the principal architect of Garlic, a data federation platform, she enabled seamless access to multiple data sources through an advanced query language, and she personally developed query optimization strategies that significantly improved Garlic’s performance. Her leadership extended to the development of IBM InfoSphere Federation Server, which was built upon this technology, playing a key role in the emergence of the enterprise information integration industry.
Moreover, Haas headed the Clio project, where she introduced schema mapping theories and algorithms that were implemented in the first tool designed to automate data transformations between disparate sources. She has been a visionary in the field of information integration and expanded her work into big data analytics while serving as Director of IBM Research's Accelerated Discovery Lab.
Biography
Haas completed her A.B. degree in applied mathematics and computer science at Harvard University in 1978, followed by a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981. She joined IBM Almaden Research Center immediately thereafter and held numerous positions within IBM Research, including IBM Fellow and Director of the Accelerated Discovery Lab. In August 2017, she assumed the role of dean at the College of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Her spouse is Peter J. Haas, who has also been a long-term member of IBM Research and later joined her academic endeavors at Amherst.
Awards
Haas was honored as an ACM Fellow in 2006 for her pioneering leadership and achievements in federated database systems. In 2010, she was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering due to her innovative work on designing and implementing information integration systems. That same year, she received the ABIE Technical Leadership Award presented at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. In 2015, she earned the SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award.
See also
External links
- IBM Profile: Laura Haas: [1]—access restricted
- Laura Haas | IEEE Computer Society
- Articles with short description
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- American women computer scientists
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- Living people
- Harvard University alumni
- Database researchers
- IBM employees
- IBM Fellows
- IBM Research computer scientists
- University of Texas at Austin College of Natural Sciences alumni
- American computer scientists
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- 20th-century American women scientists
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- University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty