June 15, 2023 – The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) presented world-renowned computer science researcher and co-founder of database theory, Prof. Jeffrey D. Ullman, with a prestigious Honorary Doctorate degree during the 86th Board of Governors Meeting on June 12th in Jerusalem, Israel.  

Prof. Ullman, the Stanford W. Ascherman Professor of Computer Science (Emeritus), has been a leader in the database theory field. His highly influential textbooks revolutionized the content of database courses that have educated generations of distinguished computer scientists. Prof. Ullman was the Ph.D. advisor for Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin and served on Google’s technical advisory board.    

He is also a Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Gradiance Corporation, which designs homework and labs, that encourage students to learn from their mistakes and complete assignments correctly.   

At the ceremony, HU President Prof. Asher Cohen conferred upon Prof. Ullman the degree of Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa, “In recognition of his tremendous contributions to the field of computer science, in tribute to his academic achievements, including the prestigious A.M. Turing Award; and with immense gratitude for his and Holly’s close friendship with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, including their support of teaching assistants and an endowed lectureship.”  

Acknowledging the accolade, Prof. Ullman said, “I am honored to receive this degree and have been pleased to witness Hebrew University’s success in encouraging researcher cooperation and applying computer science big data and evaluative techniques to new fields of study. This helps break down academic silos, encourages new directions in research, and advances the Hebrew University’s mission to expand the boundaries of knowledge in service to Israel and the world.”   

Prof. Ullman and his wife Holly have been involved with Hebrew University for many years. They have pledged a $1 million gift to the university for the Scharf-Ullman Endowed Lectureship in Data and Computing Research and the Scharf-Ullman Graduate Scholarship Fund for Data and Computing Research. This gift also encourages cooperation between computer scientists and researchers in fields as diverse as medicine, political science, agriculture, and archaeology.  

In 2020, he was a co-recipient of the Association of Computing Machinery’s A.M. Turing Award, the highest distinction in computer science. It celebrated Prof. Ullman’s contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. 

Other prizes and awards include the Donald E. Knuth Prize, the SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award, and the IEEE John von Neumann Medal. He has received Honorary Doctorates from the Free University of Brussels (1975); the University of Paris-Dauphine (1992) and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2016).  

Prof. Ullman has served on numerous technical and scientific advisory boards, editorial boards, and corporate boards of directors, sharing his expertise with government agencies, commercial companies, and start-ups. He has also contributed to committees at academic and government institutions across the United States, Canada, Israel, Australia, Singapore, and Japan.  

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering and Science, and a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.  

Prof. Ullman received a Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 1966 and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Mathematics from Columbia University in 1963.  

He lives with his wife, Holly, in Stanford, California.