CWI awarded the Dijkstra Fellowship on 21 November to Marcin Żukowski, former CWI database researcher and co-founder of the globally successful tech company Snowflake. Żukowski’s pioneering work produced techniques that are still essential for efficiently processing huge amounts of data, leading to faster analysis and new opportunities for companies working with big data.
Marcin Żukowski at the Dijkstra Fellowship & Lectures.
With the Dijkstra Fellowship, named after Dutch computer pioneer Edsger W. Dijkstra, CWI honours Żukowski’s exceptional scientific and technological contributions. For example, Żukowski’s innovations have now been integrated into technologies that drive Snowflake’s global success and play an important role in database management combined with cloud solutions.
“Marcin is an excellent example of how CWI’s mission can be put into practice. He used his PhD research at CWI to create versatile fundamental software products ”, said CWI director Ton de Kok.
Marcin Żukowski began his career at CWI, where he introduced the award-winning concept of vectorised execution and led to the spin-off VectorWise (now Actian), an analytical database system. In 2012, he became Snowflake’s third founder, bringing his vectorised execution and lightweight compression innovations to the first database system designed for external cloud storage. Having left Snowflake earlier this year, he now serves as an investor, consultant, and supporter of technology development and innovation in Poland.
More information:
https://www.cwi.nl/en/news/dijkstra-fellowship-for-marcin-zukowski/
