06-08-2009, 10:53 AM
<b>Rajeev Motwani, beloved in high tech world â including Google â dead at 47</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The news of Motwani's death struck like a thunderclap in Silicon Valley. Blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter communications were filled with testimonials to a brilliant, kind man who was never too busy to help a budding entrepreneur or struggling graduate student. He helped many valley startups gain a foothold, but none so famous as Google, whose cofounder Sergey Brin mourned him Saturday.
Reached on the phone, Brin said the many conversations he had with Motwani helped inspire his thinking and research.
"I want him to really be remembered well. It's a rare combination to have
somebody who is so smart and also such a nice guy." Motwani, he added, "had a lot of interest in computer science theory. He's primarily a theoretician, and it's incredible the amount of impact he has had directly on products and companies."
Brin also wrote in his blog on Friday: too.blogspot.com/2009/06/remembering-rajeev.html.
Silicon Valley's "ecosystem" has suffered a major blow with Motwani's death, said a friend, angel investor Ron Conway.
"He's a great example on how the Silicon Valley ecosystem works," said Conway, "which is why everyone is so upset at this tragedy. We've lost one of the best contributors to the Silicon Valley ecosystem."
"Everybody in Silicon Valley talked to him," said David Hornik, a valley venture capitalist. "Rajeev was an incredible resource to everyone."
Popular at Stanford
Born March 26, 1962, in Jammu, India, Motwani grew up in New Delhi, earned a computer science degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1983, and his doctorate from the University of California-Berkeley in 1988. As a Stanford professor, he also served as the director of graduate studies for the computer science department and founded the Mining Data at Stanford project (MIDAS).
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Big loss.
Reached on the phone, Brin said the many conversations he had with Motwani helped inspire his thinking and research.
"I want him to really be remembered well. It's a rare combination to have
somebody who is so smart and also such a nice guy." Motwani, he added, "had a lot of interest in computer science theory. He's primarily a theoretician, and it's incredible the amount of impact he has had directly on products and companies."
Brin also wrote in his blog on Friday: too.blogspot.com/2009/06/remembering-rajeev.html.
Silicon Valley's "ecosystem" has suffered a major blow with Motwani's death, said a friend, angel investor Ron Conway.
"He's a great example on how the Silicon Valley ecosystem works," said Conway, "which is why everyone is so upset at this tragedy. We've lost one of the best contributors to the Silicon Valley ecosystem."
"Everybody in Silicon Valley talked to him," said David Hornik, a valley venture capitalist. "Rajeev was an incredible resource to everyone."
Popular at Stanford
Born March 26, 1962, in Jammu, India, Motwani grew up in New Delhi, earned a computer science degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1983, and his doctorate from the University of California-Berkeley in 1988. As a Stanford professor, he also served as the director of graduate studies for the computer science department and founded the Mining Data at Stanford project (MIDAS).
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Big loss.