I realized this month that I have been involved in academic research for four decades. Indeed, I started getting involved in computer-science forty years ago today. At the time, I was a senior undergraduate computer-science major at Dartmouth College. On the first day of my final term (spring term) before graduation, I started a part-time job as a research assistant to Professor Donald Johnson. His expertise was wide-ranging, and as I recall my task was to write Mesa code for some database experiments using a brand-new lab stocked with Xerox desktop computers. I learned a lot that term!
By the end of that summer I was at Duke University for a PhD in Computer Science. I am especially grateful to my advisor, Professor Carla Ellis, for guiding me through the PhD and for imparting so many valuable lessons, tangible and intangible, that have allowed me a successful career.
When I returned to join the faculty at Dartmouth, five years later, I became a colleague of Don Johnson – my prior research mentor – and Scot Drysdale, the first computer scientist at Dartmouth and indeed the first professor I’d met as a freshman at Dartmouth in 1982. I deeply appreciate their advice and mentorship during my early years as a professor.
Thank you to the many students and colleagues who I’ve had the pleasure of working with over these past decades. We’ve done a lot of great research together!
David Kotz 