Brown CS News

Kathy Kirman Billings Retires After 45 Years At Brown

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After forty-five years at Brown, Kathy Kirman Billings, Project and Financial Manager for Brown CS Technical Staff (tstaff), is retiring. Above everything else, she describes the Department as a tight-knit community: “People care about each other and look out for each other. I’ve gotten to know so many students over the years, and I’m still friends with some of them.”

Brown CS Alum Layla Oesper Receives The CRA Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award

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Brown CS alum Layla Oesper has been honored with the 2025 Computing Research Association (CRA) Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentoring Award, which recognizes individual faculty members who have provided exceptional mentorship, undergraduate research experiences, and in parallel, guidance on admission and matriculation of these students to research-focused graduate programs in computing. Currently an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Carleton College, Layla specializes in developing algorithms for computational biology, with a particular emphasis on cancer research.

Maurice Herlihy Receives Honorary Doctorates From Technion And Università della Svizzera italiana

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In the space of a month, Brown CS faculty member Maurice Herlihy has been awarded honorary doctorates from two different institutions: Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), located in Haifa, Israel, and Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland. Technion conferred upon him the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on June 9, during its annual Board of Governors meeting, while USI presented him with the honorary doctorate on May 10, during its Dies Academicus ceremony.