Eric Allen Brewer is
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
emeritus of
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
and vice-president of infrastructure at
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
. His research interests include
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...
s and
distributed computing
A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages to one another from any system. Distributed computing is a field of computer sci ...
. He is known for formulating the
CAP theorem about distributed network applications in the late 1990s.
In 1996, Brewer co-founded
Inktomi Corporation
Inktomi Corporation was a company that provided software for Internet service providers (ISPs). It was incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Foster City, California, United States. Customers included Microsoft, HotBot, Amazon.com, eBay, ...
(bought by
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...
in 2003) and became a paper
billionaire during the
dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
. Working with the United States federal government during the
presidency of Bill Clinton, he helped to create
USA.gov, which launched in 2000. His research also included a
wireless networking
A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes.
Wireless networking is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and business installations avoid the costly process of introducing c ...
scheme called WiLDNet, which promises to bring low-cost connectivity to rural areas of the
developing world. He has worked at Google since 2011.
Education
Brewer received a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
in
electrical engineering and
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
(EECS) from
UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...
where he was a member of the
Pi Lambda Phi
Pi Lambda Phi (), commonly known as Pi Lam, is a social fraternity with 145 chapters (44 active chapters/colonies). The fraternity was founded in 1895 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Pi Lambda Phi is headlined by prestigious chapte ...
fraternity.
[Membership Directory, 2010, Pi Lambda Phi Inc.] Later he earned a
Master of Science
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...
and
PhD in EECS from
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
. He received tenure from UC Berkeley in 2000.
Awards
In 1999, he was named to the MIT
Technology Review
''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...
TR100
The Innovators Under 35 is a peer-reviewed annual award and listicle published by ''MIT Technology Review'' magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. at ''Technology Review'' with lists of winners at technologyreview.com
...
as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
In 2007, Brewer was inducted as a
Fellow
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
of the
Association for Computing Machinery "for the design of scalable, reliable internet services." That same year, he was also inducted into the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...
"for the design of highly scalable internet services."
Brewer is the 2009 recipient of the ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences "for his contributions to the design and development of highly scalable Internet services."
In 2009, Brewer received the
SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award The ACM SIGOPS (Special Interest Group on Operating Systems) Mark Weiser Award is awarded to an individual who has shown creativity and innovation in operating system research. The recipients began their career no earlier than 20 years prior to nom ...
.
In 2013, the
ETH Zurich honored him with the title Dr. sc. tech. ().
References
External links
UC Berkeley websiteMore about the CAP Theorem*Interview wit
Eric Breweron winning the ACM Infosys Foundation Award by
Stephen Ibaraki
*
*
Docker conference 201
Dockercon14 keynotePodcast interviewwith Eric Brewer on the CAP theorem
Inktomi's Wild Ride - A Personal View of the Internet Bubble
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brewer, Eric
Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
MIT School of Engineering alumni
UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni
Living people
Google employees
Year of birth missing (living people)
UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty
Recipients of the ACM Prize in Computing
Researchers in distributed computing
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Berkeley Macintosh Users Group members