Some computer scientists gathered Saturday at the University of California at Berkeley to honor the late Jim Gray, a renowned computer scientist, who went missing while on a sailing voyage in January 2007. Mr. Gray received the Turing Award—the most highly regarded computer science prize—in 1998 for his work on transaction processing, which paved the way for electronic commerce.
At the tribute it was announced that a Jim Gray Endowed Chair in Computer Systems will be established at Berkeley. A diverse group of technology executives are contributing about $2-million to the chair: Bill Gates, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft; Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google; Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce.com; and Mike Stonebraker, a professor at Berkeley and co-founder of Ingres. The Hewlett Foundation is kicking in $1-million.
A Jim Gray Scholarship Fund, worth half a million, also has been established at the University of Washington.—Andrea L. Foster
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