Brief Bio

Michael J. Freedman is the Robert E. Kahn Professor in the Computer Science Department at Princeton University. Freedman is also the co-founder and CTO of Timescale, the fastest PostgreSQL for demanding applications. His work has broadly focused on distributed systems, storage systems, networking, and security. Honors include the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, ACM SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award, ACM Fellow, Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE), Sloan Fellow, and DARPA CSSG Member.

Bio

Michael J. Freedman is the Robert E. Kahn Professor in the Computer Science Department at Princeton University, as well as the co-founder and CTO of Timescale. Timescale is the fastest PostgreSQL for demanding applications, supercharging real-time analytics, AI, and transactional workloads, with thousands of global customers and $180M raised from leading VCs. His work has broadly focused on distributed systems, storage systems, networking, and security.

Freedman developed CoralCDN (millions of daily users), Ethane (the basis for OpenFlow / software-defined networking), and CONIKS cryptographic key transparency (used by iMessage and WhatsApp). He previously co-founded Illuminics Systems (acquired by Quova/Neustar) and technically advised Stacks/Hiro (STX, Bitcoin smart contracts).

Honors include the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, ACM SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award, ACM Fellow, Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE), Sloan Fellow, and DARPA CSSG Member. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from NYU's Courant Institute and his S.B. and M.Eng. degrees from MIT.

Longer Bio

Michael J. Freedman is the Robert E. Kahn Professor in the Computer Science Department at Princeton University. He is also the co-founder and CTO of Timescale, the fastest PostgreSQL for demanding applications, supercharging real-time analytics, AI, and transactional workloads, with thousands of global customers and $180M raised from leading VCs (Benchmark, NEA, Redpoint, Tiger Global, and others). His work broadly focuses on distributed systems, networking, and security. Prior to joining Princeton in 2007, he received his Ph.D. in computer science from NYU's Courant Institute and his S.B. and M.Eng. degrees from MIT.

Freedman developed and operated several broadly used systems. He built CoralCDN, a decentralized content distribution network that served millions of users daily from 2004 -- 2015. His DONAR server selection system provided name resolution for Measurement Lab, including those powering the FCC's Consumer Broadband Test. Freedman's work on programmable enterprise networking (Ethane) formed the basis for the OpenFlow/SDN architecture, and CONIKS Key Transparency was adopted by iMessage and WhatsApp for cryptographic key management. Finally, Freedman co-founded Illuminics Systems to commercialize research on IP geolocation and intelligence, which was acquired by Quova (now part of Neustar) in 2006. Freedman was also a technical advisor to Hiro/Stacks (STX), offering smart contracts on Bitcoin.

Freedman's other research has included cloud storage and data management, AI learning systems, fault-tolerant distributed systems, software-defined networking, service-centric networking and next-generation end-host stacks, untrusted cloud services, virtual world systems, peer-to-peer systems, and various privacy-enhancing, anti-censorship, and anti-spam systems.

Honors include the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award, ACM SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award, ACM Fellow, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE, nominated by the National Science Foundation and given by President Obama), Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, NSF CAREER Award, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, DARPA Computer Science Study Group membership, SIGCOMM, ICFP, and TCC Test of Time Awards, Caspar Bowden Award for Privacy Enhancing Technologies, and multiple award publications at SIGCOMM, USENIX Security, USENIX ATC, Eurocrypt, CCS, and LADIS. He has served as the technical program chair of SoCC, and on the technical committees for SOSP, OSDI, SIGCOMM, NSDI, IEEE Security, CCS, HotOS, USENIX, and other top conferences. His research is funded by the National Science Foundation, DARPA, Office of Naval Research, GENI Project Office, Sloan Foundation, Princeton's Grand Challenges Program, Cisco Systems, Intel, and Google.