An Apparently Indirect Route to Tenure

1
An (Apparently) Indirect Route to Tenure

• Prof. Dennis Shasha
• Courant Institute, Computer Science
• New York University

2
Brief Academic Biography

• PhD in Applied Math from Harvard 1984
• Came to NYU that fall
• Tenure by 1991
• Visited Inria for sabbatical for major retooling.

3
What Made Up Tenure Case

• PhD thesis work in TODS
• Parallel Computing Work in Trans on Programming
  Languages
• Experiences paper about databases on Wall Street
• Approximate tree matching in Siam Journal of
  Comp/Journal of Algorithms
• Hardware work for string matching in IEEE
  Computer.

4
Tenure Case Continued

• Analytical justification for free-at-empty
  instead of merge-at-half for B trees in PODS and
  then JCSS.
• Equijoins for database machines in TODS.
• Query processing for distance metrics in ACM TOIS
• And The Puzzling Adventures of Dr. Ecco

5
Is There Anything Strange Here?
6
Strange

• Papers in databases, pattern recognition (not
  considered part of databases at the time) and a
  puzzle book?
• Maybe I lucked out, but in retrospect I must not
  have.
• Axiom 1 The letter writers count a lot.

7
Lesson 1

• Be true to yourself. Wrote the puzzle book
  because I had to. Some of the letter writers
  later told me in confidence that they took the
  bravado as a sign of energy.

8
No Salami Research

• Make each paper count.
• Nothing annoys people more than to look at nearly
  redundant papers.

9
Branch out Beyond Databases

• Unless your departmental database group has the
  clout to push your tenure case, go beyond.
• Remember theorists view databases as exercises
  in first-order logic algorithmists as a few
  index structures OS people as restricted file
  systems.
• False, but you must show your versatility.

10
Take Teaching Seriously

• I developed a wildly popular course in computer
  literacy.
• Universities feel ever more accountable to their
  students.
• Figure out how to make teaching synergistic to
  research. Otherwise move to a research lab.

11
The Best Job

• When I consult on Wall Street or elsewhere, Im
  reminded of virtues of academia freedom,
  synergy, and constant stimulation. Also, pressure.