Professor of Computer Science, UC Berkeley
VP Infrastructure, Google
Dr. Brewer focuses on all aspects of Internet-based systems, including technology, strategy, and government. As a researcher, he has led projects on scalable servers, network infrastructure, sensor networks, and security. His current focus is (high) technology for developing regions, with projects in India, Indonesia, and Kenya among others, and including communications, power, and health care. Working with the Aravind Eye Hospital over 100,000 patients have had their vision restored due to diagnosis via long-distance video telemedicine.
In 1996, he co-founded Inktomi Corporation with a Berkeley grad student based on their research prototype, and helped lead it onto the NASDAQ 100 before it was bought by Yahoo! in March 2003.
In 2000, he founded the Federal Search Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization focused on improving access to government information. Working with President Clinton, Dr. Brewer helped to create USA.gov, the official portal of the Federal government, which launched in September 2000.
He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for leading the development of scalable servers (early cloud computing), and also received the ACM Infosys Foundation and ACM Mark Weiser awards. Dr. Brewer developed the “CAP Theorem†in the late 1990s as a way to push for deeper exploration of distributed data systems. He received an MS and Ph.D. in EECS from the MIT, and a BS in EECS from UC Berkeley.
He was named a "Global Leader for Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum, by the Industry Standard as the "most influential person on the architecture of the Internet", by InfoWorld as one of their top ten innovators, by Technology Review as one of the top 100 most influential people for the 21st century (the "TR100"), and by Forbes as one of their 12 "e-mavericks", for which he appeared on the cover.