After my (successful!) tenure decision, I wanted to be sure to thank the many people that have contributed to my professional development over the years. This is a work in progress, and I apologize for any names that have slipped in the writing; obviously I have many more people to thank than I can name individually. But a big thanks (in roughly temporal order) to:
Frank Kelly, who introduced me to the joys of Markov chains and
networks during my year in Cambridge.
Alistair Sinclair, who advised, mentored, and guided me through
Berkeley, and cemented my appreciation for randomness in general
and Markov chains in particular.
All of the Berkeley professors and students during my time there. It
was (and still is, of course) a great place to study computer science.
Special thanks go to: Richard Karp, who was always available to give
advice or a kind word when needed; Steve Lumetta, who helped keep me
sane and got me through more than one class; the theory students
(Dana, Diane, Micah, John, Jeff, Eric, everybody else) and the
poker/TGIF crowd.
Michael Luby, for inviting me to work on a really interesting and
exciting project involving codes (which I knew nothing about...) as I
was finishing up my thesis.
Andrei Broder, who essentially gave me my first job, mentored and
guided me after the thesis, and has been my most frequent co-author!
He had faith in me at a time when I don't think it was at all clear
that faith was warranted. As my "supervisor", Andrei invited me to
take part in many projects, while not pressuring me to become involved
in any of them. I learned an amazing amount from Andrei, and I just
think it's a shame he doesn't advise more students.
The rest of the group at Digital Systems Research
Center. It was exciting to be at a place where people who
were working on real systems problems wanted to be talking with real
theorists to find solutions that were both theoretically sound and
practical. My experience there has influenced my subsequent work
profoundly.
Alan Frieze and Eli Upfal -- two of
my "go-to" people when I have a question. Andrei introduced them to
me, and they too have served as mentors and advisors, giving advice
whenever asked. Eli gets special thanks for convincing me to do
something on my lifetime to-do list -- write a book -- and being an
outstanding co-author. (If you get a chance to write a book with him,
I'd recommend it.)
John Byers, who is the biggest reason I write
"networking" papers -- because I have an incredibly strong collaborator
who works in networking! John understands the networking problems but
talks the theory talk. He puts up with me when writing papers, which
I hope isn't so hard, and when he's across the bridge table from me,
which I'm sure is much more difficult.
The Harvard computer science group. It's great to be in an
environment where everyone knows each other's names, where working
together and consensus are appreciated, and where senior faculty will
listen to the concerns and questions of the junior faculty.
All the many people who have been helpful with advice and support of
one sort or another over the years -- including in rough alphabetical
order Susanne Albers, Cynthia Dwork, Joan Feigenbaum, Monika
Henzinger, Neal Lesh, Steve Lumetta, Bruce Maggs, Dana Randall, Satish
Rao, Amin Shokrollahi, and many, many others.
All of my co-authors and collaborators that I haven't already named
above. Yes, I know you did most of the work, but I am thanking you
for it.
And of course, everyone else who is slipping my mind at the moment.
Feel free to remind me...