Prabhakar Raghavan
{{short description|American computer scientist}}
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| image = Prabhakar Raghavan, Vice-Presidente Sênior do Google Global (cropped).jpg
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| caption = Raghavan in 2023
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| workplaces = Google
University of California Berkeley,
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Yahoo! Labs
Stanford University
IBM
| alma_mater = University of California Berkeley,
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
| thesis_title = Randomized Rounding and Discrete Ham-Sandwich Theorems: Provably Good Algorithms for Routing and Packing Problems (Integer Programming)
| thesis_url = http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1987/CSD-87-312.pdf
| thesis_year = 1987
| doctoral_advisor = Clark D. Thompson{{cite web | url = http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1986/5986.html | title = Randomized Rounding And Discrete Ham-Sandwich Theorems: Provably Good Algorithms for Routing and Packing Problems | quote = Advisor: Clark D. Thompson | publisher = UC Berkeley | access-date = 19 May 2014}}
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Prabhakar Raghavan is a computer scientist and the Chief Technologist at Google.{{Cite web |last=Roth |first=Emma |date=2024-10-17 |title=Google is replacing the exec in charge of Search and ads |url=https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/17/24272786/google-search-prabhakar-raghavan-nick-fox |access-date=2024-10-22 |website=The Verge |language=en}} His research spans algorithms, web search and databases.{{cite web|title=Prabhakar Raghavan|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/3368123|work=Executive Profile|publisher=Bloomberg Businessweek|access-date=1 May 2024}} He is the co-author of the textbooks Randomized Algorithms{{cite book |author1=Raghavan, Prabhakar |author2=Motwani, Rajeev |title=Randomized algorithms |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-521-47465-8 }} with Rajeev Motwani{{Cite journal | last1 = Raghavan | first1 = Prabhakar| author-link1 = Prabhakar Raghavan| title = Rajeev Motwani (1962-2009)| journal = Theory of Computing | volume = 8 | pages = 55–57 | doi = 10.4086/toc.2012.v008a003 | url = http://www.theoryofcomputing.org/articles/v008a003/v008a003.pdf| year = 2012 | doi-access = free }} and Introduction to Information Retrieval.{{cite book |author1=Schütze, Hinrich |author2=Christopher D. Manning |author3=Raghavan, Prabhakar |title=Introduction to information retrieval |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-521-86571-5 }}{{DBLP|name=Prabhakar Raghavan}}{{Cite journal | last1 = Broder | first1 = A. | last2 = Kumar | first2 = R. | last3 = Maghoul | first3 = F. | last4 = Raghavan | first4 = P. | last5 = Rajagopalan | first5 = S. | last6 = Stata | first6 = R. | last7 = Tomkins | first7 = A. | last8 = Wiener | first8 = J. | doi = 10.1016/S1389-1286(00)00083-9 | title = Graph structure in the Web | journal = Computer Networks | volume = 33 | issue = 1–6 | pages = 309–320 | year = 2000 }}{{ACMPortal}}{{Scopus}}
Early life and education
Prabhakar was born in India and spent his youth in Bhopal, Madras and Manchester.{{cite news |title=The driving force behind Yahoo Research |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/the-driving-force-behind-yahoo-research/ |access-date=2024-06-07 |work=CNET |date=2006-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240607174012/https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/the-driving-force-behind-yahoo-research/ |archive-date=2024-06-07 |language=en}} In 1981, he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, followed by a Master of Science in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1982.{{cite web |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=http://theory.stanford.edu/~pragh/cv.pdf |access-date=2024-06-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110802201735/http://theory.stanford.edu/~pragh/cv.pdf |archive-date=2011-08-02 |language=en}}
Prabhakar continued his education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a Ph.D. in computer science in 1986.{{cite web |title=Prabhakar Raghavan |url=http://theory.stanford.edu/people/raghavan/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990220223110/http://theory.stanford.edu/people/raghavan/ |archive-date=1999-02-20 |url-status=dead}}
Career
After completing his doctorate, Prabhakar worked in various research positions at IBM. He began as a research staff member at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center. In 1994, he was promoted to manager of theory of computing. A year later, he relocated to the Almaden center in Silicon Valley to become the senior manager of the computer science principles and methodologies department of IBM Research until 2000.{{cite news|last=Farber|first=Dan|title=Yahoo's new search master|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/yahoos-new-search-master/|work=Between the Lines Blog|publisher=ZDNet|access-date=28 October 2011}} His research group focused on algorithms, complexity theory, cryptography, text mining, and other fields. While working for IBM in the late 1990s, he was also a consulting professor at Stanford University.
Raghavan's research team at Stanford co-existed with another researching search engines that included students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who later founded Google.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/apr/26/yahoo-ibm-google-prabhakar-raghavan|access-date=23 April 2024|title=Yahoo's secret weapon: the ex-IBMer who worked with Google's founders|newspaper=The Guardian |date=26 April 2011 |last1=Kiss |first1=Jemima }}
After working 14 years at IBM, he became senior vice president and chief technology officer at enterprise search vendor Verity in 2004.{{Cite web |title=Prabhakar Raghavan {{!}} CDSS at UC Berkeley |url=https://cdss.berkeley.edu/prabhakar-raghavan |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=cdss.berkeley.edu}} In July 2005, he was hired by Yahoo! to lead Yahoo! Research in Sunnyvale, California.{{cite press release |author= |title= Yahoo! Appoints Dr. Prabhakar Raghavan to Lead Research Efforts|url=https://www.altaba.com/static-files/b939898f-4737-462e-ad31-354b3614815e |location= Sunnyvale, California|publisher=Yahoo! |agency= |date=2005-07-28 |access-date=2024-06-06}} At Yahoo!, he worked on research projects including search and advertising.{{Cite web |last=Reisinger |first=Don |date=2012-03-05 |title=Yahoo Labs chief, strategist jumps to Google, report says |url=https://www.cnet.com/home/smart-home/yahoo-labs-chief-strategist-jumps-to-google-report-says/ |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=CNET |language=en}} In 2011, he was appointed as Yahoo!'s chief strategy officer.{{Cite web |last=Swisher |first=Kara |date=2012-03-04 |title=Yahoo Labs Head Raghavan Departing to Google |url=https://allthingsd.com/20120304/exclusive-yahoo-labs-head-raghavan-departing-to-google/ |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=AllThingsD |language=en-US}}
In 2012, Prabhakar joined Google after severe funding cuts in Yahoo!'s research division. In 2018, he was put in charge of Ads and Commerce at Google and in 2020 his scope was expanded to include Search, Geo, and Assistant.{{Cite web |last=Sterling |first=Greg |date=2020-06-04 |title=Google promotes Prabhakar Raghavan to lead Search, replacing Ben Gomes |url=https://searchengineland.com/google-promotes-prabhakar-raghavan-to-lead-search-replacing-ben-gomes-335561 |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Search Engine Land |language=en}} {{Cite news |last=Levy |first=Steven |title=Prabhakar Raghavan Isn’t CEO of Google—He Just Runs the Place |url=https://www.wired.com/story/prabhakar-raghavan-isnt-ceo-of-google-he-just-runs-the-place/ |access-date=2025-03-12 |work=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}
In 2024, he transitioned to the role of Chief Technologist at Google.
Raghavan has published over 100 papers in various fields and has secured 20 issued patents.{{Cite news |date=2024-10-18 |title=This Indian-origin executive is Google's new chief technologist |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/this-indian-origin-executive-prabhakar-raghavan-is-now-googles-new-chief-technologist-sundar-pichai-makes-big-changes/articleshow/114348808.cms |access-date=2025-05-27 |work=The Economic Times |issn=0013-0389}}
Awards and honors
Prabhakar is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of both the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).{{cite web|title=Dr. Prabhakar Raghavan|url=http://pressroom.yahoo.net/pr/ycorp/prabhakar-raghavan.aspx|work=Company Info|publisher=Yahoo! News Center|access-date=28 October 2011}} From 2003 to 2009, Prabhakar was the editor-in-chief of Journal of the ACM.{{cite web|title=History|url=http://jacm.acm.org/history|work=Journal of the ACM|access-date=28 October 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026032429/http://jacm.acm.org/history|archive-date=26 October 2011}}
In 1986, Prabhakar received the Machtey Award for Best Student Paper.{{Cite web |url=https://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/SFCS.1986.30 |date=October 1986 |title=Machtey Award |publisher=IEEE Computer Society |issn=0272-5428}} In 2000, he was named a fellow of the IEEE;{{cite web|title=IEEE Fellows: R|url=http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/fellows/alphabetical/rfellows.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120905235038/http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/fellows/alphabetical/rfellows.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 5, 2012|work=IEEE Fellows|publisher=IEEE|access-date=28 October 2011}} received the Best Paper Award at the ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems;{{cite web|title=Department of Computer Science 1999-2000 Annual Report|url=http://www.cs.cornell.edu/annual_report/99-00/Kleinberg.htm|publisher=Cornell University|access-date=28 October 2011}} and received the Best Paper Award at the Ninth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW9).{{cite web|title=2000 IBM Research Computer Science Best Paper Awards|url=http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/research.nsf/pages/d.compsci.bestpapers2000.html|work=IBM Computer Science|publisher=IBM|access-date=28 October 2011}} In 2002, Prabhakar was named a fellow of the ACM.{{cite web|title=Verity Executive Prabhakar Raghavan Inducted as an ACM Fellow|url=http://www.autonomy.com/content/News/Releases/2002/0116a.en.html|work=News & Events|publisher=Autonomy.com|access-date=28 October 2011|archive-date=19 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319091849/http://www.autonomy.com/content/News/Releases/2002/0116a.en.html|url-status=dead}} He received the 2006 Distinguished Alumnus Award, UC Berkeley Division of Computer Science.{{cite web|title=Distinguished Alumni|url=http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/alumni/distinguished.cs.shtml|publisher=Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences|access-date=28 October 2011}} In 2008, Prabhakar was made a member of the National Academy of Engineering,{{cite web|title=National Academy of Engineering Elects 65 Members and Nine Foreign Associates|url=http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=02082008|work=News|publisher=National Academies|access-date=28 October 2011}} and in 2009, he was awarded a Laurea honoris causa from the University of Bologna. In 2012, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus by the IIT Madras. In 2017, Prabhakar and co-authors received the Seoul test of time award for their 2000 paper "Graph Structure in the Web" at the WWW conference.{{Cite web | title=IW3C2 - ToT Awards | url=https://www.iw3c2.org/ToT/PressRelease-3rdToT-20170405.pdf | access-date=2025-02-15 | website=www.iw3c2.org}}
Criticism
In April of 2024, the blogger Ed Zitron claimed Raghavan was responsible for a massive decline in quality at Google following his takeover of Google Search and subsequent focus on ad revenue in the prioritization of search results.{{cite web|url=https://www.seroundtable.com/how-man-killed-google-search-report-37281.html|title= Report: How Prabhakar Raghavan Killed Google Search |work=Search Engine Roundtable|date=April 25, 2024|access-date=January 12, 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://boingboing.net/2024/04/23/how-one-power-hungry-leader-destroyed-google-search.html|title=How one power-hungry leader destroyed Google search|last=Frauenfelder|first=Mark|work=Boing Boing|date=April 23, 2024|access-date=January 12, 2025}}
References
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Category:American chief executives
Category:American computer businesspeople
Category:American computer scientists
Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Category:Indian emigrants to the United States
Category:Indian computer scientists