Zehra Meral Özsoyoglu is a Turkish-American computer scientist specializing in

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

s, including research on

query language Query languages, data query languages or database query languages (DQL) are computer languages used to make queries in databases and information systems. A well known example is the Structured Query Language (SQL). Types Broadly, query language ...

database model A database model is a type of data model that determines the logical structure of a database. It fundamentally determines in which manner data can be stored, organized and manipulated. The most popular example of a database model is the relational ...

, and

indexes Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

, and applications of databases in science,

bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, in particular when the data sets are large and complex. As an interdisciplinary field of science, bioinformatics combi ...

, and

medical informatics Health informatics is the field of science and engineering that aims at developing methods and technologies for the acquisition, processing, and study of patient data, which can come from different sources and modalities, such as electronic hea ...

. She is the Andrew R. Jennings Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

Education and career

Özsoyoglu earned bachelor's and master's degrees from

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. The ...

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

before moving to the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

Edmonton, Canada Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anchor ...

for her doctoral studies. Her 1980 dissertation, ''Distributed Database Query Optimization Using Semi-Joins'', was supervised by Clement T. Yu. She joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University in 1980, becoming the first female faculty member in her department and the second in the engineering school. She also became the first female chair of her department. She was

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

for ''

ACM Transactions on Database Systems The ''ACM Transactions on Database Systems'' (''ACM TODS'') is one of the journals produced by the Association for Computing Machinery. ''TODS'' publishes one volume yearly. Each volume has four issues, which appear in March, June, September and D ...

'' from 2007 to 2014, the first female editor-in-chief of the journal, and the editor-in-chief of the ''Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment'' for 2011–2012. She has also served as program chair for four database conferences.

Recognition

Özsoyoglu was named a

Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery 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 ...

in 2011 "for contributions to database management systems". In 2018 she won the 2018 ACM SIGMOD Contributions Award "for dedicated service to the database community". The award cited her service as

for ''

'' and the ''Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment'' and as program committee chair for the VLDB conference and the

Symposium on Principles of Database Systems The ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (PODS) is an international research conference on database theory, and has been held yearly since 1982. It is sponsored by three Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Comp ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ozsoyoglu, Meral Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American academics of Turkish descent American computer scientists Turkish women computer scientists Turkish computer scientists Database researchers Middle East Technical University alumni University of Alberta alumni Case Western Reserve University faculty