Brown CS News

Brown CS is mourning the loss of Professor Emeritus of Computer Science Stanley (Stan) B. Zdonik, Jr., who passed away on February 5 at the age of 78. Stan was a distinguished computer scientist who made pioneering contributions to data management, with especially notable work in object-oriented databases, column-store architectures, and stream processing. He earned five degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, culminating in a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and came to Brown in 1983, where he remained for his entire academic career until his retirement in 2025. 

“I still remember meeting Stan during my interview at Brown four decades ago,” says Brown CS Department Chair and James A. and Julie N. Brown Professor of Computer Science Roberto Tamassia. “His friendly nature, delightful sense of humor, and sharp intellect made an immediate impression. Over the years, I witnessed his dedication to mentoring students and junior faculty, and I benefited from his advice and support. Stan was a distinguished scientist and a pioneer in data management who greatly enhanced our department's visibility. Beyond computing, Stan was a wonderful human being who pursued many interests and even achieved recognition in the music world. I especially cherish the fond memories of our conversations about Italian cars and fountain pens.”

Brown CS faculty member and PhD alum Nikos Triandopoulos sees Stan as an exemplar: “I think of him very often, including when I struggle to follow his ‘I like to keep things simple’ recommendation that he shared as PhD Director of Graduate Studies in the early 2000s. Every time I drive my kids by Arlington High School, I suggest that they ‘do it like Stan’ – he graduated from AHS, earned five degrees at MIT, and made a career at Brown. His passing is sad news, but how beautiful and unique it is when one's life can be celebrated all around: Stan’s high scientific caliber, positive impact in the real world, kindness, warm smile, and personal charms.”

Over the years, Stan mentored numerous students at all levels as dissertation and project advisor. His teaching included CS 4 Introduction to Computing with Pascal, CS 132 Introduction to Software Engineering, CS 191 Software System Design, and CS 296 Programming AI Systems, but always centered on CSCI 1270 Database Management Systems and CSCI 2270 Topics in Database Management, which he taught continuously for his entire forty-three years at Brown.

John Bazik (Brown CS Director of Information Technology), Eugenia DeGouveia (Brown CS Administrative Coordinator), and Kathy Kirman Billings (former Project and Financial Manager for Brown CS Technical Staff, now retired) were all struck by Stan’s ability to relate to and have a great deal of fun with Brown CS staff members. 

“Stan was a great friend to the technical staff,” says John. “He often dropped by to discuss cars and tools, tell stories, and to gleefully regale us with jokes that could not be repeated in polite company. For many years, we celebrated technical staff birthdays by gathering in one of our offices to sing and have cake. Stan would mysteriously and unerringly show up to join in and have a slice.”

“Stan was such a great guy,” Kathy adds. “I remember him telling me the best story from his days in San Francisco, I believe in the Haight-Ashbury area. He had gone to a club and was outside getting some air when he saw this guy who looked like a bum sitting on the curb and went over to him. Turns out, it was Jim Morrison (of the Doors) having a smoke. Somehow, it didn't surprise me that Jim Morrison and Stan had a chat! He’ll be missed.”

“I am so saddened to hear this news about Stan,” Genie says. “He was friendly, kind, and always brought special moments to our department. I remember him stopping by just to say hello, always with a joke ready to make me laugh. When he would see Dawn Reed and me at the front desk, he would say, “Hi, kids!” and we would respond, “Hi, Dad!” – which he found so funny every time. Stan made a meaningful impact on so many of us.”

Stan’s research interests included database systems, alternative database architectures, data streams, complex analytics, and transaction processing. He had over one hundred peer-reviewed papers, some that have been cited more than a thousand times, and he co-developed several notable database projects, including the Aurora and Borealis stream processing engines; SciDB, a multidimensional array database management system (DBMS) designed for scientific workloads and data sets; H-Store, an experimental, main-memory, parallel DBMS; and C-Store, a DBMS that stores data by column and not by row. He was co-founder of StreamBase Systems, an event processing platform that analyzes real-time streaming data for decision-making purposes, and Vertica, an analytic database management software company.

Two Brown CS faculty members from the generation that followed Stan were awed by his intellect, then moved by his warmth and an eagerness to share his many passions.  

“This is sad news indeed,” says Malte Schwarzkopf. “I recall some conversations with Stan right after I joined as new faculty that made me go, ‘Whoa, this is guy is sharp, I’ve got to be on top of things when I talk to him.’ I did not find out about his other interests – bluegrass, fountain pens, and, as I just learned, cars – until much later, and it made me appreciate him more as a human.”

“I remember Stan as warm, kind, and welcoming to me as new faculty,” says Tim Nelson. “I won't be able to use a pen again without thinking fondly of him.”

Stan’s honors in the field of computer science included the Office of Naval Research’s Young Investigator Award, a Conference on Innovative Data Systems Research (CIDR) Test Of Time Award, an International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) 10-Year Best Paper Award, and an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Management of Data (SIGMOD) Best Demonstration Award. In 1993, he received a named chair and became the IBM Associate Professor of Computer Science, and in 2002, Stan and his collaborators received one of the Department’s largest grants at the time, aimed at creating software known as middleware, which enhances the interaction between a user and web servers. In 2006, he received one of the field’s highest honors by being named a Fellow of the ACM. 

Brown CS faculty member Shriram Krishnamurthi describes Stan as a true scholar who viewed all of theory and systems as fair game to improve his beloved databases: “Some time after I got here, Stan pulled me aside to chat about some work he'd done a few years earlier with his student, Mitch Cherniack. This was on a lambda calculus semantics for queries. I was surprised to see a database person talking about the lambda calculus, but then I learned that Stan's interest in programming languages ran deep. He had been a pioneer of object-oriented databases, and indeed for a while I think he had more OOPSLA papers than any of the programming languages people in the department.”

“I also remember,” Shriram adds, “the day I was eating at Veggie Planet, a now-defunct vegetarian restaurant associated with Club Passim in Cambridge. On the walls were photos of various well-known musical acts that had played at Club Passim. While waiting for my food I walked around to take in the photos of the various celebrities, some of them household names, when I was arrested by a photo of a trio: Tom and Ray Magliozzi (“Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers” from Car Talk) and their bestie from childhood…Stan Zdonik.”

Stan’s accomplishments in the world of music found recognition as well. Five years ago, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) presented him with their Distinguished Achievement Award, noting his co-founding of the Boston Bluegrass Union in 1976 (he also served as its talent buyer, emcee, and first President), his service to IBMA (he was their Vice-Chairperson, Chairperson, and President), and his general ambassadorship for Northeast bluegrass for more than four decades. He was also honored as a Kentucky Colonel.

One day, explains Brown CS faculty member John Hughes, he heard the sounds of a mandolin coming from Stan’s office: “I thought the world of Stan, but always had the sense that he (correctly!) didn't regard me as a real CS person. But I knocked on the door and we got to talking, and I mentioned that my uncle used to play mandolin, and had been in a group called The Greenbriar Boys. Stan stopped plucking and said, ‘Your UNCLE was RALPH RINZLER????’ After that, he was a bit more willing to listen to me.”

“I think that our most surprising interaction was when we were hiring in Systems one year,” John remembers, “and I stopped by his office to say that I thought we should rank a certain candidate really, really, really highly. Stan was so used to my general lack of enthusiasm for systems folks that he asked me to explain why, and I said that it was because of the way they questioned assumptions, and then carefully tested them, and that seemed like something that had the potential for long-term impact. In retrospect, I should have followed with ‘sorta like the way you do’. His Vertica work was a perfect example of that.” 

“I'll really miss him,” John says, “and the occasional music coming from his office.” 

Like many of Stan’s colleagues, Brown CS faculty member Ugur Çetintemel remembers how fully engaged Stan was with every aspect of life. Most of all, he prized Zdonik’s generosity of spirit.

“For a long time,” Ugur says, “he was my biggest collaborator across many different dimensions: co-advising students, doing research, working on our startup effort, writing grants. We’d get coffee together every day, and he’d talk about bluegrass or pen collecting or getting a great deal on a Toyota – about life! Stan really cared about the people around him. He’s been a mentor to me, as well as a big brother and a friend. He held my hand when I was a junior faculty member and didn’t have my own research group, and he set a great example, always showing me different opportunities. If I’ve been successful in any way, I give him a lot of credit for that. He was an incredibly positive force in my life, and I’m deeply grateful for his mentorship and friendship. I know many other people feel the same.”