Prabhakar Named University Faculty Scholar

Professor Sunil Prabhakar has been selected as a 2009 College of Science University Faculty Scholar. The University Faculty Scholars Program recognizes outstanding faculty who are on an accelerated path for academic distinction. This prestigious university recognition goes to select faculty in the College of Science. In addition to Prabhakar, CS faculty who currently hold this honor include Prof. Walid Aref, Prof. Suresh Jagannathan, and Prof. Zhiyuan Li.

Prabhakar joined the Purdue Computer Science Department in 1998. He earned his BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, and his MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara. His research interests include managing data uncertainty, sensor and moving object databases, biological databases, I/O optimizations for modern applications, QoS in multimedia databases, database privacy, security, and watermarking, shape similarity retrieval for CAD databases, and distributed and multimedia databases. He is currently working on the ORION database system for managing uncertain data and the C4E4 cyberinfrastructure for end-to-end environmental exploration. These projects are funded by the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

The honor of University Faculty Scholars is a five year appointment which begins in July. Recipients receive $10,000 per year in discretionary funds. Prof. Jue Chen of the Department of Biological Sciences and Prof. Noah Diffenbaugh of the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences were also chosen for the 2009 College of Science University Faculty Scholar distinction.

Congratulations, Prof. Prabhakar for this achievement!