1995 SIGMOD Contributions Award
Gio Wiederhold

Gio Wiederhold is a professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, with courtesy appointments in Medicine and Electrical Engineering. Since 1976 he has supervised 29 PhD theses in these departments. Current research includes privacy protection in collaborative settings, large-scale software composition, access to simulations to augment decision-making capabilities for information systems, and developing an algebra over ontologies.

Wiederhold has authored and coauthored more than 250 publications and reports on computing and medicine, including an early popular Database Design textbook. He initiated knowledgebase research through a white paper to DARPA in 1977, combining databases and Artificial intelligence technology. The results led eventually to the concept of mediator architectures.

Wiederhold received a degree in Aeronautical Engineering in Holland in 1957 and a PhD in Medical Information Science from the University of California at San Francisco in 1976. Prior to his academic career he spent 16 years in the software industry. His career followed computer technologies, starting with numerical analysis applied to rocket fuel, FORTRAN and PL/1 compilers, real-time data acquisition, a time-oriented database, eventually as a corporate software architect.

He has been elected fellow of the ACMI, the IEEE, and the ACM, which he joined in 1959. He spent 1991-1994 as the program manager for Knowledge-based Systems at DARPA in Washington DC. He has served on the board of the NCGIA, and has been an editor and editor-in-chief of several IEEE and ACM publications, including TODS.