Leonard Shapiro

{{short description|American computer scientist}}

{{for|the political scientist specialising in Russia|Leonard Schapiro}}

{{infobox person

|name=Leonard Shapiro

|birth_name=Leonard D. Shapiro

|nationality=American

|education=Reed College
Yale University (PhD)

|occupation=Computer scientist

|spouse=Elayne Shapiro

|children=3, including Ari

}}

Leonard D. Shapiro is an American computer scientist and professor emeritus of computer science at Portland State University. He is known for his contributions to database systems, particularly in the areas of query processing and optimization.

Education

Shapiro graduated from Reed College in 1965, Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a doctor of philosophy from Yale University in 1969.{{Cite web|url=http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~len/|title=Leonard Shapiro|website=web.cecs.pdx.edu|access-date=2019-03-15}}

Career

Shapiro held positions at the University of Minnesota from 1969 to 1977 and North Dakota State University from 1977 to 1987. He served as the chairman of the Division of Mathematical Sciences at North Dakota State University from 1977 to 1985.

In 1987, Shapiro joined Portland State University as a professor of computer science, where he also served as department chair from 1987 to 1994. He later became the director of the Data Intensive Systems Center (DISC).

Research and contributions

Shapiro's research has significantly impacted database systems, particularly in the areas of query processing, optimization, and main memory databases. His work spans computer science, economics, statistics, and mathematics.

One of his most cited works is "Implementation techniques for main memory database systems" (1984), co-authored with David J. DeWitt and others, which explored the changes necessary for relational database systems to take advantage of large amounts of main memory.{{Cite book|last1=DeWitt|first1=David J.|last2=Katz|first2=Randy H.|last3=Olken|first3=Frank|last4=Shapiro|first4=Leonard D.|last5=Stonebraker|first5=Michael R.|last6=Wood|first6=David A.|chapter=Implementation techniques for main memory database systems |title=Proceedings of the 1984 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data - SIGMOD '84|date=1984-06-01|pages=1–8|doi=10.1145/602259.602261|isbn=0-89791-128-8 }}

Other notable contributions include research on join processing in database systems with large main memories,{{Cite journal|last1=Shapiro|first1=Leonard D.|title=Join processing in database systems with large main memories|journal=ACM Transactions on Database Systems|volume=11|issue=3|year=1986|pages=239–264|doi=10.1145/5465.5466}} and work on data compression and database performance.{{Cite tech report|last1=Graefe|first1=G.|last2=Shapiro|first2=L.D.|title=Data compression and database performance|institution=University of Colorado, Boulder, Department of Computer Science|year=1990}}

Awards and recognition

In 2002-2003, Shapiro was elected by students as Outstanding Computer Science Teacher at Portland State University.

Personal life

Shapiro is married to Elayne Shapiro née Halpern. They have three sons, Daniel, Joseph and Ari Shapiro.{{Cite web|url=http://orjewishlife.com/ari-shapiro-considers-all-things/|title=Ari Shapiro considers all things|last=Moon|first=Deborah|date=2017-10-30|website=Oregon Jewish Life|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-15}} Shapiro is active in community service, having served on the Board of Directors for Our House of Portland, as Vice President of Hospice of Washington County, and as a volunteer consultant for Tri-Met on the use of computers and the web for bus on-time information.

References

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