With great respect and gratitude, we honor those who came before us.  Please take a moment to reflect on these individuals who dedicated their lives to advancing the field of Computer Science, and did so in service to the department and Rutgers University.

Saul Amarel

Saul Amarel is regarded as the founder of Rutgers Department of Computer Science.  He established the department in 1969, along with a core group of fellow researchers from his previous work at RCA Labs.  At the time, all matters related to the discipline were under the purview of the Mathematics department.  Saul's lifelong interest was in the field of Artificial Intelligence -- a novel concept when he began his work in the mid-1950s. While at RCA Labs, Saul founded the Computer Theory Research Group, focusing on A.I. studies such as control theory, learning systems, and machine learning.  

Stanley Baxendale

Stanley Baxendale was an Associate Professor, who also served as both Vice-Chair and Acting Chair of the Department of Computer Science, from which he retired in 1978.  His research interests were centered around what is now known as Natural Language Processing.  He was involved in early studies that aimed to enable computers to index drug information appearing in natural language text.  In 1979, Random House published his book "First Computer Design Coloring Book, which, as the name implies, features computer generated objects and shapes.  Stanley taught at universities across, the U.S., Canada, and the UK.  He was also a veteran of World War II, having served in the Royal Air Force (RAF).

Fred Fender

Fred Fender joined Rutgers Department of Mathematics in 1936 and was an early adopter of the "computer", although it hardly resembled the technology that we know today.  In 1954, Fender installed the first machine of its type at Rutgers, a wired plugboard accounting machine which could read punched cards, installed in the basement of Ballantine Hall (part of the Zimmerli Museum since 1983).  In 1957 the first stored-program computer at Rutgers - an IBM 650 computer - was installed in the basement of Hegeman Hall, a dormitory. Fred Fender operated it and informally called its room the Computation Center. The "Center" was entirely contained within the Mathematics Department.  During this time, Fender taught "Computer Programming and Numerical Methods", nearly six years before the establishment of the Computer Science Department.  Fender remained with the department until his retirement in 1974.

Michael Grigoriadis

Professor Michael D. Grigoriadis graduated from Robert College in Istanbul in 1958 with a degree in Civil Engineering. He emigrated to US in 1958 to study at Lehigh University, PA. He was awarded a fellowship from IBM to study for his Ph.D in Computer Science, which he completed in 1970 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His thesis was on structured nonlinear programming, written under the supervision of Professor J.B. Rosen, who was well-known for his work on gradient projection method.

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Related article: https://www.cs.rutgers.edu/news-events/highlights/highlight-item/9148-232-in-memory-of-prof-michael-grigoriadis

Liviu Iftode

The Department of Computer Science is deeply saddened to report that Prof. Liviu Iftode passed away on February 16, 2017. Liviu was a beloved and highly respected member of the Rutgers CS faculty, and mentored numerous students over the years.

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Related article: https://www.cs.rutgers.edu/news-events/highlights/highlight-item/9126-587-in-memory-of-prof-liviu-iftode-1959-2017

Ken Kaplan

Professor Kenneth R. Kaplan, Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University from 1991 to 1997.  Bracketing his chairmanship, Ken was Associate Chair from 1981 to 1990 and again from 1996 to 2001. His soft-spoken, yet persuasive leadership helped guide the department through an explosive growth period that saw computing transition from punch cards to portable laptops. He left an indelible stamp on CS students and faculty, as well as the entire University community.

Leonid "Leo" Khachiyan

Leonid "Leo" Khachiyan joined Rutgers Department of Computer Science in 1990, where he served as a member of the faculty until his passing in 2005.  In 1979, he gained recognition throughout the mathematics and computer science communities by establishing an effective polynomial time algorithm for linear programming.  This breakthrough served to advance the field of linear programming, and as such, led to him being awarded the Fulkerson Prize in 1982 from the Mathematical Programming Society and American Mathematical Society.

 

Saul Levy

Saul Levy joined the Department of Computer Science in 1971, just two years after its inception.  As a professor, he taught courses in computer architecture for almost forty years, also serving as Associate Chair for the department.  A brilliant student, Professor Levy studied Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on a full scholarship, before earning a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Yeshiva University.  Saul was known for his dry, witty sense of humor, as well as his fondness for travel and art, both historical and contemporary. 

Marvin Paull

In 1969, Marv Paull joined Rutgers University to help form the expanding graduate program in the Department of Computer Science (DCS). Marvin completed 40 years of service, retiring as Professor Emeritus. At Rutgers Marv Paull worked on programming languages, parallel systems and computer architectures. He taught graduate courses on the Syntax and Semantics of Programing Languages, and the Theory of Finite State Machines as well as many undergraduate courses. He supervised the dissertations of Paul Murphy, John Franco, Barbara Ryder, Marie-Therese Daulard, and Arthur Berman. He authored the book Algorithm Design: A Recursion Transformation Framework, Wiley, 1986, and co-authored the seminal paper “Elimination Algorithms for Data Flow Analysis” with Barbara Ryder (ACM Computing Surveys, September 1986).

Irv Rabinowitz

A resident of Princeton for 55 years, Irving earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University while working as a computer programmer at the Institute for Advanced Study. Subsequently, he headed the computer section of the Plasma Physics Laboratory and later directed the computer center at Princeton. He taught computer science at Rutgers from 1969 until his retirement in 1991.

Donald "Don" Smith

Don Smith was a long-time member of the Rutgers community.  After receiving his PhD from Rutgers in 1982, he became a faculty member in the Computer Science (CS) department, then serving as the Director of the Laboratory for Computer Science Research (LCSR), and finishing his career as the Vice President of the Office of Information Technology (OIT). In both his personal and professional life, Don was known for his kindness and his imperturbable approach to challenges.  When faced with adversity, he calmly confronted each obstacle with logic tempered by deep humanistic values, inspiring others along the way and cultivating optimism in the face of future problems that would surely be encountered.  As a computer scientist, his genuine curiosity and affinity for the discipline drove his research interests.  While at Rutgers, Don worked on multiple NASA-sponsored projects, lending his expertise and his specific blend of computational thinking to tackling problems such as the re-development of hypersonic inlets used in their aircraft.  He was an outstanding educator, consistently garnering some of the highest “teaching effectiveness” scores on student evaluations in a variety of courses and displaying his versatility by helping pilot innovative courses outside his area of expertise. As LCSR Director, he led the transformation of the CS Department’s computing infrastructure through several revolutionary technological changes, setting the foundation for the current organization. He also provided leadership for the entire department, mentoring many junior colleagues along the way. As OIT Vice President, he supervised the merging of IT systems when the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) was merged with Rutgers and the entry of Rutgers into the Internet2 community.  

Ann Yasuhara

Ann Harris Yasuhara joined Rutgers Department of Computer Science in 1972.  While serving as Associate Professor, Ann drew on her extensive background in mathematics and logic while teaching Recursion Theory, a subject about which she also wrote a book, Recursive Function Theory and Logic.